Number  Fourteen. 


KITTY    GRAFTON. 


FOUNDED    ON    FACT. 


iSoston: 

PUBLISHED  BY  WHIPPLE  AND  DAMRELL, 

No.  9  Cornhill. 

NEW  YORK:  — SCOFIELD  AND  VOORHIES, 
No.  118  Nassau  Street. 

1838. 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1857, 

Br  WILLIAM  8.  DAMRELL, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  Massachusetts. 


TO   THE    READER. 


AMONG  the  most  favorable  notices,  which  have 
been  so  kindly  bestowed  upon  the  Temperance 
Tales,  there  have  been  occasional  strictures  upon 
the  exhibition  of  deacons,  church-members,  and 
clergymen,  in  an  unfavorable  light.  The  story 
now  offered  to  the  world,  may  be  read  without 
disquietude,  by  those,  who  are  sensitive  upon  this 
point.  A  respectful  regard  for  the  opinions  of  oth 
ers  has  prompted  the  writer  to  offer  a  plain  expo 
sition  of  his  own. 

If,  in  these  humble  efforts  to  promote  the  wel 
fare  of  mankind,  the  holy  office  of  pastor  and  its 
correlative  offices  of  deacon  and  church-member 
had  any  where,  on  any  page,  been  otherwise  ap 
proached  than  with  affectionate  respect,  there 
would  assuredly  have  been  good  ground  of  of 
fence.  But  it  has  been  far  otherwise.  Not  only 
have  these  offices,  as  such,  been  presented  in  the 
most  respectful  point  of  view,  but  examples  can 
readily  be  found,  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
Temperance  Tales,  of  individual  deacons,  church- 
members,  and  clergymen,  of  the  most  pious  and 
exemplary  lives  and  conversations. 


The  stricture  must  therefore  be  considered,  as 
limited  to  the  occasional  introduction  of  an  anti- 
temperance  minister,  a  rum-selling  deacon,  or  a 
drunken  church-member.  Three  questions  nat 
urally  arise  in  this  connection,  which  the  writer 
proposes  to  ask,  and,  so  far  as  he  is  able,  to  an 
swer. 

FIRST  :  Have  such  things  ever  existed,  as  anti- 
temperance  ministers,  rum-selling  deacons,  and 
drunken  church -members  ? 

SECOND  :  Do  such  things  still  exist,  notwith 
standing  the  extensive  spread  of  the  temperance 
reform,  and  the  prayers  and  entreaties  of  its 
friends  ? 

THIRD  :  If  such  things  exist,  does  their  expo 
sure  tend  to  retard  the  progress  of  the  temperance 
cause,  or  to  bring  the  offices  of  religion  into  con 
tempt  ? 

To  the  aged,  whose  memories  are  yet  vigorous, 
it  may  seem  a  work  of  supererogation  to  construct 
a  formal  reply  to  our  first  inquiry.  Before  the 
dawn  of  the  reformation,  rum-selling,  not  on  ac 
count  of  its  respectability,  but  of  the  dangers  at 
tending  it,  was  intrusted  to  grave  men, — to  men 
of  sober  lives  and  conversations,  and  ivho  were  firmly 
attached  to  the  constitution  and  laws.  Such  has 
been  the  very  phraseology  of  the  law,  through  all 


our  colonial,  provincial,  and  state  legislation. 
The  deacons  in  every  village  were  men  of  this  de 
scription  ;  and  the  finger  of  the  statute  seemed  to 
point  towards  them  and  church-members,  in  a  very 
intelligible  manner.  Accordingly  a  large  pro 
portion  of  such  persons,  in  the  ratio  of  their  whole 
number,  were  engaged  in  the  traffic,  from  the  very 
commencement  of  our  national  existence.*  Had 
the  trade  in  the  means  of  drunkenness  been  a  safe 
one  for  the  consumer,  the  restrictive  language  of 
the  law  would  not  have  been  employed.  It  would 
have  been  needless.  And,  had  the  traffic  been  con 
fided  to  ordinary  hands,  it  is  reasonable  to  infer, 
that  there  would  have  been  fewer  intemperate 
clergymen.  For  they  would  not  have  been  so 
likely  to  purchase  their  intoxicating  liquor  of  a 
purely  secular  dealer,  as  of  a  deacon  or  a  church- 
member.  It  is  not  to  be  denied,  that  the  holy  of 
fice  of  a  deacon  and  the  solemn  profession  of  a 
church-member  contributed  to  clothe  with  an  air 
of  respectability  that  very  traffic,  which,  now  that 
it  has  been  thoroughly  stripped  and  publicly  ex 
posed,  so  many  good,  and  wise,  and  pious  men 


*  NOTE.  A  grave  and  highly  respected  friend,  to  whom 
these  remarks  were  read  in  manuscript,  states  that,  in  his 
native  village,  where  a  venerable  deacon  had  long  been  en 
gaged  in  the  retail  rum  trade,  two  taverns  were  established, 
m  process  of  time,  whose  proprietors,  though  not  at  all  re 
markable  for  the  sanctity  of  their  lives,  soon  acquired  from 
their  customers  the  appellation  of  deacons. 


hold  to  be  disreputable,  and  even  immoral.  It 
seemed  to  be  a  safe  and  consistent  doctrine,  that 
a  clergyman  might  becomingly  purchase  and  em 
ploy  any  article,  which  a  deacon  or  a  church-mem 
ber,  iii  good  standing,  would  openly  expose  for 
sale,  having  been  licensed  for  that  very  purpose  by 
authority.  Certain  it  is,  that  intemperate  clergy 
men  were  not  at  all  uncommon.  Those,  to  whom 
this  assertion  may  appear  too  broad,  we  refer  to 
"  Barbours  Temperance  Tables,"  showing  the  in 
fluence  of  intemperance  on  the  churches,  and  to 
the  candid  statements  of  all  persons,  whose  years 
enable  them  to  speak  from  experience.  Nothing 
can  be  more  pertinent  here,  than  a  few  extracts 
from  a  late  letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Edwards,  from 
the  Rev.  Leonard  Woods,  D.  D.  Professor  of  Chris 
tian  Theology,  in  the  Theological  Institution,  An- 
dover,  Massachusetts.*  "  When  I  entered  on  the 
work  of  the  ministry  (thirty -eight  years  ago)  it  was 
the  general  and  almost  universal  practice  for  ministers 
to  make  a  frequent  use  of  stimulating  drinks,  espe 
cially  on  Hit  Sabbath.  They  considered  this  practice 
an  important  means  of  promoting  their  health,  sus 
taining  them  under  fatigue,  and  increasing  the  vigor 
of  their  constitution.  The  generality  of  physicians 
approved  of  this  practice,  and  often  recommended 
brandy,  urine,  gin,  etc.,  as  the  best  remedy  for  diseases 

*  Ninth  Rep.  Amer.  Temp.  Soc.  p.  49 


Vll 

of  the  stomach  and  lungs.  Every  family  that  I  visit 
ed,  deemed  it  an  act  of  kindness,  and  no  more  than 
what  common  civility  required,  to  offer  me  wine,  or 
distilled  spirit,  and  thought  it  a  little  strange,  if  Ire- 
fused  to  drink.  Jit  funerals,  the  bereaved  friends 
and  others  were  accustomed  to  use  strong  drink  before 
and  after  going  to  the  burial.  Jit  ordinations,  coun 
cils,  and  all  other  meetings  of  ministers,  different 
kinds  of  stimulating  drinks  were  provided,  and  there 
were  but  few  who  did  not  partake  of  them."  *  *  * 
*  *  *  *  *  «The  state  of  things  which  I  have 
referred  to,  among  men  of  my  own  profession,  togeth 
er  with  its  manifest  consequences,  began,  early  in  my 
ministry,  to  alarm  my  fears.  I  remember  that  at  a 
particular  period,  before  the  temperance  reformation 
commenced,  I  was  able  to  count  up  nearly  forty  minis 
ters  of  the  Gospel,  and  none  of  them  at  a  very  great 
distance,  who  were  either  drunkards,  or  so  far  addicted 
to  intemperate  drinking,  that  their  reputation  and  use 
fulness  were  greatly  injured,  if  not  utterly  ruined. 
•And  I  could  mention  an  ordination,  that  took  place 
about  twenty  years  ago,  at  which,  I,  myself,  was 
ashamed  and  grieved  to  see  two  aged  ministers  liter 
ally  drunk ;  and  a  third,  indecently  excited  with  strong 
drink.  These  disgusting  and  appalling  facts  I  should 
wish  might  be  concealed.  But  they  were  made  public 
by  the  guilty  persons ;  and  I  have  thought  it  just  and 
proper  to  mention  them,  in  order  to  show  how  much 
we  owe  to  a  compassionate  God  for  the  great  deliver- 


viii 

ance  he  has  wrought."    This  evidence  might  be 
continued  to  any  desirable  extent. 

In  the  second  place,  we  ask,  if  there  are  such 
things,  at  the  present  day,  as  anti-temperance  min 
isters,  rum-selling  deacons,  and  drunken  church- 
members?  The  reformation  has  done  much  to 
purify  the  world  in  this  respect  In  the  language 
of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Woods,  "  We  owe  much  to  a  com 
passionate  God,  for  the  great  deliverance  he  has 
wrought"  And  yet,  even  at  the  present  day,  this 
deliverance,  though  an  object  of  devout  thanks 
giving  and  praise,  is  by  no  means  complete.  The 
testimony,  in  the  writer's  possession,  furnished  from 
various  quarters  of  our  country,  affords  melancholy 
proof,  that  deacons  and  church-members  have  by 
no  means  relinquished  the  use  nor  the  traffic  ;  and 
that  clergymen  may  be  found  in  every  denomination, 
who  set  their  faces,  in  a  bitter  spirit,  against  this 
"great  deliverance"  for  which,  with  Professor 
Woods,  such  multitudes  arise  to  offer  their  grate 
ful  homage  to  a  compassionate  God.  At  one  mo 
ment,  we  have  "  reasons  for  not  joining  the  temper 
ance  society,  by  a  clergyman"  At  another,  a  minister 
boasts  before  his  people,  in  the  very  spirit  of  ex 
ultation,  that  he  and  they  have  not  formed  them 
selves  "  into  a  Bible  society,  or  a  temperance,  or  an 
education,  or  a  benevolent  society"  To-day,  a  bishop 
lectures  against  the  temperance  society,  and  pub 


IX 

lishes  his  lecture  to  the  world,  assuring  them  up 
on  the  faith  of  his  lawn  sleeves,  that  "  the  success  of 
the,  temperance  society  mill  be  the  triumph  of  infidelity" 
We  are  scarcely  permitted  to  recover  from  one 
false  alarm,  before  our  nerves  are  exercised  by  an 
other  :  a  reverend  reviewer  next  proclaims  the  true 
"state  of  the  temperance  reform"  and  informs  us, 
that  the  cause  is  "at  a  stand;"  while,  in  the  same 
breath,  he  calls  upon  his  brethren  and  friends,  to 
"  drag  the  wheels " — of  a  machine,  which  he  has 
already  averred  to  be  perfectly  motionless  and 
still.  Nor  is  this  all ;  another  reverend  divine,  who 
has  been  "  every  thing  by  fits  and  nothing  long," 
turns  round  upon  his  old  confederates,  and  op 
poses  those  very  doctrines,  which  had  been  the 
object  of  his  zealous  affection,  and  puts  forth  a 
long  tirade  against  the  temperance  society,  and  all 
the  grand  moral  and  religious  combinations  of  the 
age ;  assuring  us  that  the  temperance  society,  in 
particular,  is  utterly  defunct ;  and  referring  the 
world,  for  a  succedaneum,  an  infallible  panacea 
for  all  moral  maladies,  to  the  book  of  common 
prayer  and  the  doctrines  of  the  primitive  church. 
Over  this  production,  the  editor  of  a  religious  pa 
per,  himself  also  a  clergyman,  and  who,  could  he 
have  grasped  the  sword  of  St  Peter,  would  have 
certainly  cut  the  rest  of  mankind  to  his  own 
stature, — literally  gloats,  pouring  forth,  at  the 
same  time,  the  most  vituperative  language  against 


the  temperance  society  and  its  supporters.  Nor 
is  this  all ;  when  the  Massachusetts  State  Temper 
ance  Society,  upon  a  late  occasion,  requested  the 
clergy  to  preach  upon  the  subject  of  temperance, 
a  clergyman,  not  contented  with  a  contemptuous 
neglect  of  that  society's  request,  entertained  his 
hearers  with  an  anti-temperance  discourse,  dili 
gently  arraying  before  them  every  text,  which 
could  be  misconstrued  to  afford  comfort  to  the 
wine-bibber.  Nevertheless  the  temperance  re 
form  moves  gloriously  forward — these  efforts  of 
its  opponents  are  speedily  forgotten ; — in  the  lan 
guage  of  another, 

Lethean  gulfs  receive  them,  as  they  fall, 
And  dark  oblivion  soon  absorbs  them  all. 

It  is  abundantly  manifest,  however,  that  the  tem 
perance  reform  has  not  had  its  perfect  work 
among  clergymen,  deacons,  and  church-members. 
The  writer  has  before  him  incontrovertible  evi 
dence  of  the  intemperance  of  several  clergymen, 
deacons,  and  church-members ;  in  some  cases 
amounting  to  stupid  drunkenness.  Within  a  short 
time,  a  minister,  somewhat  advanced  in  years,  a 
member  of  the  temperance  society,  was  found  to 
be  in  the  constant  practice  of  privately  drinking 
gin,  and  was  summoned  before  the  society  for  that 
offence.  Deacons  and  church-members  are  notori 
ously  engaged  in  the  traffic  and  in  the  manufac 
ture,  not  only  by  wholesale,  but,  hi  the  more  dis- 


XI 

gusting  form,  retailing  it  to  every  applicant  In 
making  this  statement,  the  writer  relies  on  the  evi 
dence  of  conversations,  held  directly  with  men  of 
this  description,  upon  the  subject  of  their  degra 
ding  traffic.  It  is  not  long,  since  he  partook  of  the 
sacrament,  while  the  tavern-keeper  of  the  village, 
sitting  in  the  same  pew,  did  the  same  thing;  and, 
in  less  than  half  an  hour,  the  writer  having  return 
ed  to  the  inn,  saw  this  church-member  openly  sell 
ing  brandy  in  his  bar,  and  drinking  it  himself 
without  the  slightest  indication  of  embarrassment. 
The  testimony  on  this  point  also  could  be  gathered 
in  abundance  throughout  the  land. 

We  now,  in  the  third  place,  inquire  if  the  ex 
posure  of  such  examples  has  a  tendency  to  retard 
the  progress  of  the  temperance  reform,  or  to  bring 
the  offices  of  religion  into  contempt  ?  It  must  be 
apparent,  that  the  great  body  of  rum-sellers  delight 
to  shelter  themselves  behind  this  vanguard  of 
deacons  and  church-members,  their  sanctimonious 
co-ordinates  in  this  melancholy  traffic.  It  is,  at 
present,  believed  to  be  as  reputable  for  the  consu 
mer  to  buy,  as  for  the  deacon  and  church -member 
to  sell :  here  again  the  holy  office  and  the  Chris 
tian  profession,  in  their  misapplication,  exert  a 
baneful  influence  upon  the  morals  of  a  people, 
and  certainly  tend  to  retard  the  progress  of  the 
reform.  It  will  be  difficult  to  convince  the  inhab- 


xii 

itants  of  a  city  or  village  of  the  immorality  of 
the  traffic,  while  a  deacon  or  church-member 
therein  openly  pursues  it,  and  yet  maintains,  un 
impaired,  his  relations  to  society  and  to  the  church. 
Wherever  such  a  condition  of  things  exists,  it  is 
worse  than  absurd  to  marvel  that  the  temperance 
cause  is  at  a  stand,  or  even  losing  the  ground  it 
had  already  won.  Its  very  worst  opponents,  in 
such  cases,  are  those,  who,  by  precept  and  exam 
ple,  should  prove  themselves  its  warmest  friends. 
Experience  has  shown,  that  reason,  however  effec 
tual,  with  impartial  minds,  is  of  but  little  avail, 
when  self-interest  argues  upon  the  other  side. 
Never  was  this  remark  more  applicable,  than  to 
rum-selling,  deacons  and  church-members.  They  are 
more  readily  influenced  by  pathos  than  by  reason 
— too  frequently  they  are  unmoved  by  either. 
There  is  a  last,  and,  as  the  writer  believes,  a  legi 
timate  resource ; 

Ridiculum  acri 

Fortius  et  melius  magnas  plerumque  secat  res.* 

It  is  not  easy  to  perceive,  in  what  manner  the 
whole  body  of  deacons,  or  church-members,  or 
clergymen  is  to  receive  detriment  from  such  an 
exhibition  of  their  inconsistent  and  worthless  as 
sociates,  until  we  can  comprehend  the  nature  and 
extent  of  that  mischief,  which  is  wrought  upon 

*  For  ridicule  shall  frequently  prevail, 
And  cut  the  knot,  when  graver  reasons  fail. — FRANCIS. 


xiii 

the  natural  body,  by  the  extirpation  of  an  ulcer  or 
a  cancer,  or  by  the  removal  of  a  corrupt  and  of 
fensive  member.  Reason,  or  pathos,  or  ridicule, 
in  the  former  case,  may,  by  the  blessing  of  the  Lord, 
produce  the  same  beneficial  results,  which  are 
achieved,  in  the  latter,  by  the  knife,  or  the  caus 
tic,  or  the  actual  cautery.  Neither  can  it  be  read 
ily  perceived,  that  the  rule  of  righteousness  re 
quires  of  all  the  deacons  in  the  land  to  cast  their 
Christian  graces  into  common  stock,  and  then  de 
clare  a  dividend  per  capita,  among  them  all.  Still 
further, — should  the  friends  of  temperance  ex 
pand  that  mantle,  which  is  said  to  hide  a  multi 
tude  of  sins,  sufficiently  to  cover  all  the  distille 
ries,  taverns,  and  dram-shops,  owned  or  controlled, 
directly  and  indirectly,  by  deacons  and  church- 
members,  throughout  these  United  States, — it 
would  be  of  no  possible  avail ;  for  the  enemies  of 
temperance  would  assuredly  tear  it  away.  The 
very  forbearance,  in  relation  to  such  offending 
members,  would  indicate  the  point  of  morbid  sen 
sibility,  which  the  foes  of  the  reformation  would 
not  fail  to  perceive. 

But  the  irreligious,  the  scoffer  will  delight  to 
witness  these  exhibitions  of  intemperate  clergy 
men,  and  rum-selling  deacons,  and  church-mem 
bers  !  The  scoffer  would  indeed  have  reason  to 
smile,  if  the  wearer's  bands,  or  lawn  sleeves,  or 
the  office  of  deacon,  or  the  profession  of  a  church- 


XIV 

member  were  accounted  by  Christians,  not  simp  y 
a  prima  fade  but  an  indelible  and  unquestionable 
stamp  of  sanctity  forever. 

The  offices  of  the  church  are  not  more  likely  to 
come  into  disrepute,  at  the  present  time,  by  an  in 
timation  that  drunkenness  may  be  found  among 
the  professors  of  Christianity,  than  was  the  profes 
sion  of  Christianity  itself,  when  an  inspired  apos 
tle  rebuked  the  drunkenness  of  the  primitive  dis 
ciples  around  the  table  of  their  Lord.  But  these 
offices  may  well  be  considered  of  doubtful  dignity, 
whenever  the  concealment  of  corruption  shall  be 
deemed  essential  to  their  well-being. 

It  is  desirable  to  show,  that  there  is  no  other 
absolute  security  from  the  evils  of  intemperance, 
than  in  the  whole  armor  of  a  cold- water  man. 
It  is  not  possible  more  forcibly  to  exhibit  this 
truth,  which  such  multitudes  appear  unwilling  to 
believe,  than  by  exhibiting,  in  a  striking  light,  the 
insufficiency  even  of  the  offices  and  professions  of 
religion  to  protect  those  teachers  and  disciples 
of  Christianity,  who,  while  they  pray  not  to  be 
led  into  temptation,  obviously  prefer  the  path  of 
danger  to  that  of  safety. 


KITTY    GRAFTO1V. 


MY  ministerial  labors  commenced  in  the 
village  of  Heathermead,  about  nine  years  ago  : 
and,  in  these  times,  when  a  love  of  change 
appears  to  be  almost  epidemical  among  min 
isters  and  people,  it  may  seem  somewhat  re 
markable,  that  I  still  preach  where  my  pastoral 
life  began,  to  many  willing  ears,  and,  I  trust,^ 
through  God's  mercy,  to  some  sanctified 
hearts. 

I  was  first  called  to  the  ministry  as  the  col 
league  of  a  very  aged  man,  the  Rev.  Adrian 
More.  He  was  my  father, — not  after  the 
flesh, — my  own  natural  father  I  never  be 
held  ;  he  perished  at  sea,  a  few  months  only 
before  I  was  born. — This  aged  minister  was 
ray  father  in  the  Lord.  I  was  placed  under 


16  KITTY    GRAFTON.  106 

his  care,  to  be  prepared  for  the  university ;  and 
the  good  old  man  prepared  me,  I  trust,  for  the 
faithful  service  of  the  best  of  masters.  When 
I  quitted  the  university,  I  was  instructed  for 
the  ministry  under  his  direction ;  and,  subse 
quently,  at  his  own  request,  I  became  asso 
ciated  with  him  in  his  holy  office.  This  ven 
erable  man,  at  the  age  of  eighty  years,  gave 
me  the  charge  upon  my  ordination ;  and  my 
first  public  discourse,  on  the  ensuing  Sabbath, 
was  a  sermon  over  his  lifeless  remains.  He 
was  ripe  for  the  sickle,  and  longed  to  be  gath 
ered  in.  The  energies  of  a  good  constitution 
and  the  grace  of  God  had  sustained  him  for 
six  and  fifty  years,  in  the  performance  of  his 
sacred  trust ;  and  when,  in  God's  good  time, 
his  spiritual  guard  was  relieved,  by  the  institu 
tion  of  another  at  his  side  ;  this  faithful  old  sol 
dier  of  the  cross  laid  down  his  armor  of  the 
present  world,  and  went  to  that  rest,  appoint 
ed  for  the  dead,  who  die  in  the  Lord. 

During  the  period  of  my  pupilage,  we  had 
many  pleasant  rambles  together,  and  I  never 
failed  to  gather  some  useful  instruction  by  the 


107  KITTY    GRAFTON.  17 

way  ;  for  his  conscientious  impressions  of  duty, 
as  my  instructor,  forbade  him  to  be  satisfied 
with  affording  me  the  mere  technicalities  of 
education  ;  and  our  conversation,  at  such  times, 
was  eminently  useful,  in  the  improvement  of 
my  reasoning  and  colloquial  powers. 

Upon  one  occasion,  we  had  strolled  almost 
to  the  confines  of  the  next  village  ;  in  which  it 
was  a  matter  of  painful  notoriety,  that  the 
clergyman  consulted  his  own  comfort,  rather 
than  the  spiritual  wants  of  his  parishioners : 
"  Let  us  turn,"  said  my  old  master, — with  a 
smile  upon  his  benignant  features,  in  which 
the  slight  touch  of  pleasantry,  that  first  arose, 
was  speedily  chased  away  by  an  expression 
of  sadness  ; — "  let  us  turn,"  said  he  ;  "  let  us 
not  press  farther  upon  our  brother's  domains, 
lest  we  be  suspected  of  coming  to  see  the  na 
kedness  of  the  land." — Upon  the  very  bor 
ders  of  the  adjoining  village,  though  within  the 
limits  of  our  own,  there  stood  an  ancient  cot 
tage,  of  peculiar  structure,  with  its  multiplied 
gables,  and  its  second  story  projecting  over 
the  first.  From  its  broken  windows  and  doors, 
9 


18  KITTY    GRAFTON.  108 

I  supposed  it  to  have  been  abandoned.  It  is 
yet  standing,  and  is  the  very  last  cottage,  as 
you  leave  Heath ermead,  on  the  north.  In 
the  rear  of  this  building,  there  were,  at  that 
time,  the  remains  of  an  uncommonly  large 
barn  ;  the  timbers  and  roof  were  then  in  exist 
ence,  but  the  boards  and  the  lower  part  of 
the  interior  had  been  removed.  As  we  drew 
near,  a  female  came  forth,  and  stood,  without 
any  apparent  motive,  looking  steadily  towards 
us,  as  we  passed. — "  I  did  not  think  it  was  in 
habited,"  said  I. — "  It  is  not,"  replied  my  old 
master, "  excepting  by  that  lone  woman." — As 
we  drew  nigh,  I  had  an  opportunity  of  ob 
serving  the  solitary  occupant  more  closely. 
Her  person  was  tall  and  thin  ;  her  eye,  sun 
ken  and  haggard;  and  her  hair,  which  was 
wholly  uncovered,  and  quite  gray,  bore 
no  evidence  of  personal  attention.  The  ex 
pression  of  her  countenance  was  decidedly 
bitter  and  malevolent.  When  we  came  in 
front  of  the  cottage — "Good  morning,  Mrs. 
(jrafton,"  said  my  old  master.  The  effect  of 
his  salutation  would  have  been  as  perceptible 


109  KITTY    GRAFTON.  19 

upon  the  features  of  a  statue.  She  stood  per 
fectly  still,  gazing  upon  us  with  unabated  se 
verity,  and  in  perfect  silence. — "  I  will  try 
once  more,"  said  he,  aside. — "  I  hear  excellent 
accounts  of  your  children,  Mrs.  Grafton." — 
"  Umph  ! — the  poor-house  !  " — she  replied, 
with  a  sneering  expression,  and  walked  back 
into  the  cottage,  without  uttering  another 
word. — "  It  is  in  vain,"  said  he,  as  we  walked 
slowly  away ;  "  this  unhappy  woman  is  utter 
ly  impracticable  ;  I  can  do  nothing  with  her, 
though  I  have  made  many  and  various  at 
tempts,  for  several  years." — "  Is  she  crazy, 
sir?"  I  inquired. — "There  are  some  persons 
who  think  so,  but  I  do  not,"  he  replied. 
"  Here  she  has  lived  all  her  days.  That  cot 
tage  was  built  by* her  father;  she  was  born 
there ;  her  parents  died  there  ;  there  she  was 
married ;  and  there  she  gave  birth  to  five 
children ;  and  she  is  resolved  to  die  there. 
No — she  is  not  crazy — she  is  desperate.  Her 
case  is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  that  I 
have  ever  known.  The  story  is  too  long  to 
be  told  during  our  walk  home ;  but,  if  I  have 


29  KITTY    GRAFTON.  110 

no  partieu'ar  engagement  this  evening,  I  will 
relate  it  to  you." 

My  old  master  had  scarcely  returned  thanks 
after  our  evening  repast,  and  seated  himself 
in  his  arm-chair,  when  I  drew  near,  and  look 
ed  up  in  his  face  with  an  expression  which  he 
readily  understood. — "  Well,  my  child,"  said 
he,  "you  shall  not  be  disappointed  of  your 
story,  though  it  may  cost  me  some  pain  in  the 
relation." — "  How  old  was  that  woman,  sir," 
said  I,  "  whom  we  saw  this  morning  at  the 
cottage  door  ?  " — "  I  cannot  tell  you  precise 
ly,"  he  replied,  "without  a  recurrence  to  my 
records  ;  she  is  well  advanced  in  years,  though 
somewhat  younger  than  you  would  be  led  to 
suppose  from  her  appearance.  Harrowing 
care  and  bitter  disappointment  will  some 
times  lay  hold  of  time's  checkered  signet,  and 
suddenly  fix  the  impression  of  old  age,  as  ef 
fectually,  as  though  it  were  done  by  the  more 
dilatory  process  of  time  itself.  But  I  will  tell 
you  the  story  from  the  beginning. — Very  ma 
ny  years  ago,  there  came  to  this  village  a  man, 
whose  name  was  Gotlieb  Jansen :  he  brought 


Ill  KITTY    GRAFTON.  21 

with  him  his  "wife.  They  were  of  that  class 
of  persons,  who  have  been  called  redemption- 
ers.  They  came  to  this  country  from  a  vil 
lage  on  the  borders  of  the  Rhine.  They 
were  extremely  poor,  and  embarked  with  an 
understanding,  that,  when  they  arrived  in 
America,  they  should  voluntarily  bind  them 
selves  to  servitude,  for  the  advantage  of  the 
ship-owner,  until  their  passage-money  should 
be  paid.  They  arrived  at  the  port  of  Phila 
delphia  ;  where,  at  the  present  day,  there  are 
some  opulent  and  fashionable  families,  who 
have  good  sense  enough  to  trace,  with  pleas 
ure,  their  origin  to  those  redemption ers  of 
Germany,  who  brought  nothing  hither  from 
their  native  shores,  but  honest  hearts  and 
willing  hands.  Gotlieb  Jansen  and  his  wife, 
upon  their  arrival,  were  young,  healthy,  in 
dustrious,  frugal,  and  strictly  temperate.  He 
was  an  expert  gardener,  and  well  skilled  in 
agriculture,  in  all  its  departments.  In  the  me 
tropolis  of  Pennsylvania  he  soon  found  employ 
ment  for  his  talent  in  horticulture.  As  wages 
were  proportioned  to  experience  and  skill. 


22  KITTY    GRAFTON.  112 

Jansen's  compensation,  and  the  perquisites 
and  privileges  of  the  garden  and  green-house 
of  a  private  gentleman,  in  whose  service  he 
labored,  soon  procured  him  the  means  of  re 
deeming  himself  and  his  young  wife  from  their 
voluntary  bondage.  He  continued  to  labor 
in  his  vocation,  with  uninterrupted  health  and 
indefatigable  industry,  for  seven  years.  His 
employer  was  a  member  of  the  society  of 
Friends,  of  whom  Jansen  never  spoke  but  with 
affectionate  respect.  At  the  end  of  this  term, 
his  earnings,  which  had  been  judiciously  in 
vested,  under  the  counsel  of  his  Quaker  friend, 
amounted  to  no  inconsiderable  sum.  He  was 
desirous  of  trying  the  virtue  of  his  faithful 
share  and  pruning-hook  upon  acres  and  or 
chards  of  his  own.  He  has  often  told  me 
how  much  he  suffered,  when  he  came  to 
break  the  matter  to  his  kind  master.  The 
^Quaker  paused  for  some  moments ;  and  at 
length  observed,  that  he  owned  a  tract  of  fair 
land  in  that  part  of  the  village  of  Heathermead, 
which  is  called  Heathermead  End  ;  that  he 
might  go  and  look  at  it ;  and,  if  he  likec^  it, 


113  KITTY    GRAFTON.  23 

he  should  have  a  deed  of  it  for  a  certain  sum. 
Jansen  lost  no  time  in  making  a  journey  to 
Heathermead,  and  examining  the  land,  which 
was  manifestly  of  an  excellent  quality.     He 
discovered,   however,   that    the   tract    could 
readily  be  sold,  for  a  greater  sum,  to  the  farm 
ers  of  Heathermead,  who  best  knew  its  value 
Here,  as  he  failed  not  to  perceive,  was  an  ad 
mirable  chance  to  cheat  the  old  Quaker ;  bui 
double-dealing  was  not  one  of  the  secrets,  by 
which  Gotlieb  Jansen's  prosperity  had  arisen. 
He  faithfully  represented   the   matter  to  his 
master : — '  Thee  likest  the  tract  ? '    said  the 
Quaker. — c  It  is  as  fine  land  as  I  ever  saw,' 
said  Jansen,  c  and  I  am  greatly  pleased  with 
it.' — '  Thee    hast   served   me    seven    years,' 
rejoined  the  Quaker,  c  and  thee  hast  pleased- 
me  right  well.     I  well  know  the  value  of  that* 
land,  but  thee  shalt  have  a  deed  for  the  sum 
I  said  unto  thee.' — 1  have  seen  Gotlieb  Jan 
sen  shed  tears  of  gratitude,  as  he  described  his 
separation  from  his  old  Quaker  master,  when, 
with  an  affectionate  pressure  of  the  hand,  and 
Fare  thee  well,  friend  Jansen/  he  put  into 


24  KITTY    GRAFTOX.  114 

his  hands  the  deed  of  this  valuable  tract,  foi 
not  more  than  three  fourths  of  its  real  value. 

"  Gotlieb  Jansen's  first  care  was  to  erect  up 
on  his  land  the  house  and  barn,  the  remains 
of  which  we  passed  this  morning.  The  pe 
culiar  structure  of  the  one,  and  the  unusually 
large  dimensions  of  the  other  were  subjects  of 
much  conversation  in  the  village ;  and,  if  all 
the  strictures,  which  were  made  upon  Jansen's 
proceedings  at  the  time,  had  been  collected 
together,  we  should  have  quite  a  volume  of 
commentaries.  The  general  impression,  for  a 
while,  ran  decidedly  against  him,  as  a  whimsi 
cal*  fellow.  At  a  short  distance  from  his 
dwelling,  he  had  erected,  rather  for  pleasure 
than  profit,  a  little  conservatory  for  plants. 
At  that  time,  probably,  not  an  inhabitant  of 
Heath ermead  had  ever  beheld  a  green-house  ; 
and  the  good  people  of  the  village  were  ex 
ceedingly  perplexed  in  relation  to  the  proprie 
tor's  design  ;  but,  as  Gotlieb,  while  his  build 
ings  were  in  progress,  was  busily  engaged  in 
planting  an  extensive  orchard,  the  farmers' 
wives  were  almost  unanimously  of  opinion, 


115  KITTY    GRAFTON.  25 

that  the  new  structure  was  designed  for  dry 
ing  apples.  They  were  not  a  little  disposed 
to  laugh  in  their  sleeves  at  poor  Gotlieb,  for 
erecting  such  a  building,  so  long  before  he 
could  possibly  expect  to  gather  apples  from 
his  young  trees.  The  farmers  themselves 
were  not  altogether  without  good  cause,  as 
they  esteemed  it,  for  a  little  chuckling,  at 
Jansen's  expense.  Underneath  every  apple- 
tree,  as  he  set  it  in  the  ground,  he  had  placed  a 
large  flat  stone,  which,  they  pleasantly  observ 
ed,  was  not  likely  to  afford  much  nourishment. 
This  was  a  German  custom,  designed  to  pre 
vent  the  roots  from  tapping,  or  striking  down 
ward,  and  to  compel  them  to  take  their  course 
along  the  upper  and  richer  soil. 

"  Gotlieb  Jansen  was  a  man  of  few  words. 
Those  precious  hours,  which  so  many  disin 
terested  people  devote  to  the  affairs  of  others, 
this  honest  German  bestowed  upon  his  own : 
he  labored  on,  contented  with  the  proverb, 
which  bids  those  laugh,  who  win.  Matters 
soon  however  began  to  wear  a  very  different 
appearance.  His  intercourse  with  the  peo- 
10 


20  KITTY    GRAFTON.  116 

pie  of  Heathermead  speedily  established  his 
reputation,  as  an  obliging,  good-natured  man  ; 
he  seemed  not  desirous  of  wrapping  himself, 
or  his  affairs,  in  unusual  mystery  ;  and  the 
farmers'  wives  were  particularly  inclined  to 
think  well  of  Gotlieb  Jansen,  when  he  ex 
pounded  the  riddle  of  the  green-house,  by  tell 
ing  them,  that  it  was  meant  as  a  plaything 
for  his  'good  woman,'  who  was  extremely 
fond  of  cultivating  flowers.  In  a  few  years, 
his  agricultural  success  had  thoroughly  estab 
lished  his  reputation,  as  an  excellent  husband 
man  ;  and  Jansen's  farm  became  not  less  an 
object  of  attraction  to  the  farmers  of  the  vil 
lage,  than  his  green-house  and  flower-garden 
to  their  wives  and  daughters.  He  had  readi 
ly  assimilated  and  become  one  of  the  people  ; 
and  was  universally  beloved  and  respected. 
About  a  year  after  his  arrival  in  this  village, 
his  wife  gave  birth  to  a  daughter.  Gotlieb 
and  his  wife,  in  the  progress  of  time,  became 
members  of  our  church,  and  they  were  pious 
Christians.  Their  daughter,  Christiana,  grew 
up  an  uncommonly  beautiful  young  woman. 


117  KITTY    GRAFTON.  27 

She  was  their  only  child ;  and,  if  the  parents 
were  particularly  censurable  for  any  fault,  it 
was  for  their  doting  partiality  towards  this 
interesting  girl.  They  were  more  than  will 
ing  to  gratify  her,  in  all  her  desires.  Her 
spirit  was  high,  and  her  temper  extremely 
quick ;  but  her  heart  was  full  of  generosity, 
and  her  disposition,  towards  those  she  loved, 
was  amiable  and  kind.  She  inherited  the 
partiality  of  her  parents  for  the  cultivation  of 
flowers  ;  and  the  garden  and  the  little  green 
house  were  her  chief  delights.  Her  features 
were  characteristic,  in  no  very  remarkable  de 
gree  however,  of  her  foreign  origin  ;  but,  at 
the  age  of  eighteen,  she  was  singularly  at 
tractive.  Kitty  Jansen  was,  at  that  time,  de 
servedly  styled  the  beauty  of  Heathermead 
End.  Her  surpassing  comeliness  was  univer 
sally  acknowledged,  in  our  parish,  with  a 
single  exception.  There  was  a  Miss  Pamela 
Mickle,  who  had  herself  been  handsome  in 
her  day,  but  was  then  in  her  wane,  who  sol 
emnly  protested,  that  she  never  could  see  it. 
After  the  description,  which  I  have  given 


28  KITTY    GRAFTON.  118 

you  of  Kitty  Jansen,"  continued  my  old  mas 
ter,  "  you  will  scarcely  be  able  to  trace  a  ves 
tige  of  that  lovely  girl,  in  the  miserable  crea 
ture,  that  gazed  upon  us,  as  we  passed  the 
cottage.  But  it  is  even  so.  That  was  Kitty 
Jansen.  That  desolate  wilderness  was  the 
same,  which  my  poor  friend  Gotlieb  once 
made  to  blossom  like  the  rose.  That  aban 
doned  dwelling  was  then  the  habitation  of 
joy,  and  love,  and  peace,  and  prayer.  In  all 
my  parish, — and  my  parishioners  love  me 
above  my  deserts, — I  have  no  where  been 
more  kindly  greeted  than  in  that  cottage. 
Whenever  I  came,  and  however  they  were 
occupied,  all  things  were  gladly  sacrificed  for 
the  sake  of  a  little  conversation  with  their 
pastor.  Gotlieb  would  leave  his  plough  in 
the  furrow,  and  the  good  wife  would  hasten 
from  her  dairy  ;  and  even  Kitty,  though  she 
never  seemed  to  rely  upon  the  only  cure 
foundation,  like  her  parents,  would  not  suffer 
me  to  depart,  without  an  offering  of  her 
choicest  fruit,  or  a  bunch  of  her  finest  flowers. 
By  the  aid  of  a  mischievous  memory,  it  is 


119  KITTY    GRAFTON.  29 

all  before  me,  for  an  instant — and  now  again 
it  is  gone.  What  a  curse  has  fallen  upon 
poor  Gotlieb's  little  Eden! — The  simoom 
could  not  have  wrought  the  work  of  destruc 
tion  more  effectually. 

"  There  was  living  in  Heathermead,  when 
Kitty  Jansen  was  about  eighteen  years  oi 
age?  a  7oung  man,  a  farmer's  son,  whose 
name  was  Ethan  Grafton.  He  was  a  very 
capable  and  industrious  young  man.  While 
his  father  cultivated  a  small  hired  farm,  ad 
joining  Jansen's,  Ethan  availed  himself  of 
his  proximity,  and  cultivated  the  affections  of 
the  old  man's  daughter  ;  and  it  soon  began  to 
be  whispered  about,  that  young  Ethan's  crop 
would  be  worth  more  than  his  father's,  should 
they  be  successful  in  getting  in  their  respec 
tive  harvests.  Pamela  Mickle  said  it  never 
would  be  a  match  in  the  world  ;  and,  after 
that,  the  most  incredulous  began  -to  believe  it. 
The  popular  prophecy  was  correct ;  and,  in 
less  than  two  years,  Ethan  Grafton  wedded 
the  beauty  of  Heathermead  End ;  upon  which 
memorable  occasion,  poor  Pamela  Mickle 


30  KITTY    GRAFTON.  120 

laughed  herself  into  a  violent  fit  of  hyster 
ics.  It  was  thought  to  be  an  excellent 
match.  I  certainly  thought  so  myself/'  said 
my  old  master.  "  Grafton  was  apparently  an 
amiable  man,  and  wonderfully  popular  in  our 
village.  He  was  active,  and  intelligent  in  his 
business  ;  and,  under  the  instruction  of  such 
a  teacher  as  Jansen,  it  was  augured  that  he 
would,  in  time,  become  the  most  accomplish 
ed  farmer  in  the  county. 

"  Old  Gotlieb  and  his  wife  had  stipulated, 
that  their  only  child  should  not  leave  them  in 
their  old  age ;  so  Ethan  married  on,  as  we 
say,  when  a  woman  takes  a  husband,  rather 
than  a  man  a  wife.  For  years,  the  happiness 
of  this  family  appeared  to  be  as  complete,  as 
any  earthly  thing  can  be.  How  often,"  con 
tinued  my  old  master,  "  have  I  seen  Gotlieb, 
of  a  summer  evening,  sitting  on  the  green  be 
fore  his  cottage  door,  with  the  good  book 
open  upon  his  knees,  and  surrounded  by  his 
little  grandchildren  ! — He  was  an  even-tem 
pered  old  man,  and  his  whole  life  was  free 
from  every  appearance  of  ostentation.  It  is 


121  KITTY    GRAFTON.  31 

true,  when  his  old  friend  and  patron,  the  Qua 
ker,  came  to  visit  him,  as  he  did,  once  at 
least  in  every  year,  there  was  commonly,  for 
a  few  days  before  his  arrival,  no  little  bustle 
and  preparation,  in  the  cottage  at  Heather- 
mead  End.  The  Quaker  was  a  noble-looking 
old  gentleman,  arrayed  in  a  suit  of  the  finest 
broadcloth,  cut,  to  be  sure,  according  to  the 
fashion  of  the  society  of  Friends,  and  of  course 
without  cape  or  supernumerary  button.  I 
never  shall  forget  the  magnificent  pair  of 
horses  that  he  drove.  They  cost  him,  as 
Gotlieb  said,  one  thousand  dollars.  I  once 
asked  old  Jansen,  what  induced  him  to  make 
such  a  parade  for  his  Quaker  friend,  particu 
larly  in  the  culinary  part  of  his  arrangements. 
c  Vy,'  said  Gotlieb,  c  de  old  gentleman  ish 
von  of  de  kindest  and  pest  men  in  de  voorld, 
and  he  ish  temperate  in  his  eating  and  drink 
ing,  but  he  like  de  roast  duck  vary  veil,  and 
he  know  ven  he  ish  done  to  a  turn.' 

"  Gotlieb  and  Theresa  Jansen,  his  wife, 
were  stricken  in  years.  There  was  nothing 
like  morbid  sensibility  in  the  attachment  of  this 


32  KITTY    GRAFTON.  122 

couple,  yet  they  were  devoted  to  each  other. 
They  appeared  to  be  governed  by  a  sober 
conviction,  that  two  heads  and  two  hearts  are 
better  than  one,  when  their  efforts  and  their 
energies  are  concentrated,  for  the  creation  of 
a  joint  stock  of  domestic  happiness.  They 
were  reasonable  people,  and  understood  aright 
the  process,  which  God  employs  to  wean  his 
children  from  the  present  world  ;  they  read 
volumes  of  wisdom  in  the  storm  and  tempest, 
and  found  a  meaning  in  the  flickering  cloud, 
as  it  takes  somewhat  from  the  splendor  of  the 
brightest  mid-day  ;  they  submitted  with  the 
confidence  of  devoted  children  to  the  disci 
pline  of  their  teacher  ;  and,  when  age  and 
its  wearisome  retinue  of  cares  and  infirmities 
were  at  hand,  they  were  not  compelled  to 
make  a  hasty  preparation  for  heaven.  The 
tyrant  and  the  usurper  have  occasionally  worn 
their  armor  beneath  their  robes  of  state,  in 
the  spirit  of  fear  :  in  another  spirit,  old 
Gotlieb  and  his  worthy  partner,  however  oc 
cupied,  whether  in  their  Sabbath  clothes  or 
working  apparel,  by  day  or  by  night,  had 


123  KITTY    GRAFTON.  33 

worn  their  armor  of  righteousness  upon  the 
right  hand  and  upon  the  left. — The  old  man 
had  grown  too  infirm  for  the  labors  of  the 
field,  but  I  have  seen  him,"  said  my  old  mas 
ter,  "of  a  spring  morning,  sitting  upon  the 
green  bank,  and  looking  down  upon  his  good 
ly  acres,  with  two  or  three  of  his  grand 
children  about  him,  while  Ethan  Grafton,  his 
son-in-law,  held  the  plough,  and  his  oldest 
boy  Elkanah,  who  was  not  over  seven,  rode 
the  mare.  No  war-horse  was  ever  fonder  of 
the  fields  of  his  youth  than  old  Gotlieb ;  nor 
did  the  former  ever  turn  his  ear  to  the  trum 
pet,  more  eagerly  than  this  old  man  to  the 
first  full  drops  of  pattering  rain,  as  they  fell, 
after  a  long  interval  of  drought,  upon  the 
parching  ground. 

"  One  fine  morning  in  May,  old  Gotlieb 
walked  forth  with  little  Elkanah,  to  whom  he 
was  particularly  attached,  taking  his  pocket 
Bible,  as  was  his  constant  practice,  to  read 
upon  the  way.  The  old  man  used  to  say, 
that  he  loved  most  to  worship  God  in  the 
fields,  where  he  could  have  a  full  view  of  the 


34  KITTY    GRAFTON.  124 

works  of  his  hands,  and  where  he  could  gaze 
upward,  without  any  thing  of  human  crea 
tion,  to  obstruct  his  view.  He  returned 
much  earlier  than  was  his  custom.  Little 
Elkanah  came  first  into  the  house,  and 
brought  the  tidings,  that  his  grandfather  had 
been  very  faint. — The  good  old  wife  received 
him  at  the  door.  He  sat  down  in  the  stoop 
before  the  cottage  ;  and,  as  he  gave  her — it 
had  been  his  custom  for  many  years — the  first 
branch  that  he  could  find  of  the  dogwood  in 
full  flower, — c  Dat  ish  de  last,'  said  he  with 
a  faint  smile.  Old  Theresa  turned  away,  for 
an  instant,  to  conceal  her  emotion.  As  she 
came  back  to  him  with  a  glass  of  water, 
c  Gotlieb,'  said  she,  c  Kitty  says  the  new 
rose,  in  the  green-house,  that  you  wished  to 
see  flower,  is  just  coming  out.  The  garden 
looks  finely,  this  morning  ;  and,  when  you 
feel  stronger,  you  and  I  will  go  and  walk  in 
it,  Gotlieb.' — The  old  man  shook  his  head, 
as  he  placed  both  hands  upon  his  heart. — 
They  sent  for  me,"  continued  my  old  master. 
'  He  was  vqry  low,  when  I  arrived  ;  and  the 


125  KITTY    GRAFTON.  35 

physician,  who  had  been  previously  summon 
ed,  proclaimed  his  end  to  be  near.  He  said 
little.  c  She  tells  me,'  said  he,  pointing  to 
his  wife,  e  that  we  shall  walk  in  the  garden 
together :  so  we  shall,  but  it  will  be  in  the 
garden  of  Eden.' — After  he  had  lost  the 
power  of  speech,  he  drew  Elkanah  towards 
him,  and  put  into  the  child's  bosom  the  little 
pocket  Bible,  which  had  been  the  companion 
of  their  rambles. 

"  In  two  days  after,  this  good  old  man  yield 
ed  up  his  spirit.  For  many  years,  Theresa 
had  cherished  a  strong  hope,  that  they  might 
be  permitted  to  commence  their  heavenly 
walk  together.  This  hope  had  operated 
upon  her  mind  with  such  force,  as  to  produce 
something  like  a  belief,  that  it  would  be  so. 
What  there  may  be  of  philosophy  in  such 
matters — how  far  the  force  of  a  powerful  and 
long-cherished  presentiment  may  physically 
operate  in  the  production  of  such  results,  I 
pretend  not  to  comprehend.  I  have  nothing 
to  do,  but  with  the  fact.  Good  old  Theresa 
performed  the  last  offices  of  love  ;  she  closed 


36  '     KITTY    GRAFTON.  126 

those  eyes,  that  had  never  looked  upon  her 
but  with  affection. — The  next  morning  she 
rose  not  as  usual.  When  her  daughter  enter 
ed  her  chamber,  her  features  were  so  perfect 
ly  composed,  that,  at  first,  she  seemed  to  be 
in  peaceful  slumber  : — it  was  not  thus — the 
corruptible  was  there,  but  the  spirit  had  fled. 
During  the  still  watches  of  the  night,  it  had 
quitted  its  tabernacle,  and  already  commenc 
ed  its  passage  with  that  of  her  husband  to 
the  garden  of  Eden,  for  a  closer  walk  with 
her  Savior  and  her  God.  Their  bodies  were 
buried  in  the  same  grave." 

When  my  old  master  had  arrived  at  this 
point,  he  drew  a  heavy  sigh.  "  Ah,"  said  he, 
"  it  would  be  refreshing  to  rest  here,  but  truth, 
however  painful  in  its  progress,  presses  us  for 
ward. — After  the  death  of  the  old  people, 
Ethan  Grafton  and  his  wife  continued,  for 
some  time,  to  live  happily  together.  Except 
ing  in  the  ordinary  allotments  of  Providence, 
it  would  have  been  a  very  difficult  matter  for 
a  common  observer,  to  have  anticipated  the 
cause,  which  should  annihilate  their  happi- 


127  KITTY    GRAFTON.  37 

ness,  or  even  deprive  them  of  any  material 
part  of  it.  Old  Gotlieb  had  such  unbounded 
confidence  in  the  wisdom  of  his  son-in-law, 
and  in  his  affection  for  his  daughter,  that  he 
gave  him  his  entire  property  by  will. — When 
the  old  man  planted  an  orchard,  he  probably 
no  more  imagined,  that  he  was  laying  the 
foundation  of  the  temple  of  discord,  within 
the  precincts  of  his  peaceful  cottage,  than 
Noah  supposed,  when  he  planted  a  vineyard, 
that,  by  an  abuse  of  its  products,  he  should 
bring  down  the  curse  upon  Canaan.  But 
it  fell  out,  in  the  course  of  time,  that,  as  the 
patriarch  drank  of  the  wine  and  was  drunken, 
so  Ethan  Grafton's  incomparable  cider  and 
perry  were  found  abundantly  capable  of  pro 
ducing  the  same  mischievous  result.  Gotlieb 
Jansen's  orchard  had  long  been  an  object  of 
universal  remark.  The  old  man  had  spared 
no  pains,  in  its  culture  and  preservation.  In 
the  words  of  Bayley  McGrudy,  the  Scotch 
schoolmaster,  who  taught  the  school  in 
Heathermead,  when  displaying  his  library  of 
two  hundred  and  forty  volumes, — c  There  wa*. 


38  KITTY    GRAFTON.  128 

nothing  like  it  in  all  Heathermead.'  Ethan,  as 
I  have  said,  was  a  popular,  and,  of  course,  a 
very  hospitable  man.  The  quantity  of  cider, 
which  he  annually  manufactured,  was  enor 
mous,  and  its  quality  so  very  superior,  as  to 
insure  a  ready  and  extensive  market.  The 
liberality  of  old  Gotlieb  had  made  his  son-in- 
law  the  sovereign  master  of  many  broad  acres, 
a  capital  homestead,  an  excellent  stock,  and 
some  ready  money.  When  a  young  man, 
somewhat  abruptly,  steps  into  an  estate,  so 
entirely  transcending  his  primitive  aspirations, 
he  is  commonly  liable  to  an  epanchement  du 
cceur,  an  opening  of  the  heart.  No  sooner 
was  the  legitimate  period  of  mourning  at  an 
end,  than  Ethan  Grafton  began  to  invite  his 
friends  to  come  and  see  him.  And,  long  be 
fore,  there  were  not  a  few,  who  used  to  say, 
1  The  Graftons  must  be  very  lonely  ;  let  us  go 
and  sit  an  hour  or  so  with  Ethan,  and  taste 
his  cider.'  It  must  not  be  supposed,  that 
Ethan  Grafton's  cider  was  such  miserable, 
vapid  trash  as  is  occasionally  met  with,  upon 
the  dinner  tables  of  country  taverns,  whose 


129  KITTY    GRAFTON.  39 

employment  sets  the  teeth  on  edge,  and 
brings  tears  into  the  eyes,  and  deprives  the 
human  countenance,  for  the  time,  of  all  its 
rational  proportions.  There  was  no  more  re 
semblance  than  between  the  waters  of  Heli 
con  and  those  of  a  washtub,  or  between  nec 
tar  and  the  very  smallest  of  small  beer. 
Ethan  Grafton's  far-famed  cider,  like  the 
wine,  so  fatally  administered  by  Ulysses  to  the 
Cyclop,  was  truly 

'  Mellifluous,  undecaying,  and  divine.' 

He  had  a  prodigious  amount  of  cider  and 
perry  in  bottles,  of  different  years,  marked 
and  numbered,  and  arranged  with  the  greatest 
care,  on  their  respective  shelves,  in  his  cellar. 
When  he  entertained  his  friends,  and  de 
spatched  little  Elkanah  for  some  particular 
bottle,  it  was  impossible  to  shut  out  the  com 
parison,  if  it  be  lawful  'parvis  componere 
magna?  between  the  young  farmer  of  Heath- 
ermead  End,  and  some  metropolitan  entertain 
er,  with  his  steward  of  the  wine-cellar  at  his 
elbow,  book  in  hand,  ready,  at  a  word,  to 


40  KITTY    GRAFTON.  130 

proceed  to  any  specified  compartment,  sec 
tion,  and  range  of  the  subterraneous  treasure- 
house,  and  select  the  identical  bottle,  which 
the  master  requires. 

"  Certain  it  was,  as  Bayley  McGrudy  used 
shrewdly  to  remark,  that,  when  the  tears 
ceased  to  flow  at  Heathermead  End,  the  cider 
began.  Ethan  used  to  boast  that  he  had  cider 
in  his  cellar,  that  was  'full  as  good  as  any  wine.' 
Whether  its  effects  were  evidences  of  its  good 
ness  or  badness,  it  became  matter  of  demon 
stration,  within  a  couple  of  years  after  old 
Gotlieb's  death,  that  it  would  produce  drunk 
enness  about  as  soon  ;  and  that  drunkenness, 
so  produced,  would  as  readily  steal  away  the 
brains,  and  sour  the  temper,  and  blunt  the 
kindlier  affections  of  the  heart.  Ethan's  cider 
was  certainly  very  much  like  Noah's  wine  in 
its  operation  and  effects.  It  soon  began  to 
manifest,  in  its  influences,  the  truth  of  his  as 
sertion,  that  it  was  quite  equal  to  wine ;  and, 
as  the  first  domestic  quarrel,  after  the  flood, 
and  the  curse  of  Canaan  were  the  almost  im 
mediate  consequences  of  drunkenness  on  wine, 


131  KITTY    GRAFTON.  41 

so  the  first  harsh  treatment,  which  Gotlieb's 
grandchildren  received  from  their  father,  was 
a  severe  kick,  bestowed  upon  little  Elkanah, 
for  selecting  the  wrong  bottle  of  cider,  while 
his  father  was  endeavoring  to  prove  to  some 
young  associates,  the  correctness  of  his  fre 
quently-repeated  assertion,  that  his  cider  was 
equal  to  wine.  Poor  Elkanah,  who  had  be 
come  weary  of  his  repeated  embassies  to  the 
cellar,  and  was  somewhat  sleepy  withal,  had 
mistaken  the  direction,  and  produced  a  stale 
bottle  from  a  range,  which  had  proved  worth 
less  ;  and,  when  Ethan,  who  was  waiting  for 
the  applause  of  his  guests,  whose  glasses  he 
had  filled,  found  himself  repaid  with  shouts  of 
laughter,  and  perceived  the  cause,  he  could 
not  restrain  his  anger,  highly  excited  as  he 
was  already,  by  the  cider  he  had  drunken. 
He  dealt  the  poor  child  a  terrible  kick  with 
his  cowhide  boot,  and  was  in  the  act  of  step 
ping  forward  to  repeat  it. — At  that  moment, 
Kitty  was  stirring  up  the  fire ;  she  had  the 
tongs  in  her  right  hand.  She  marked  the 
harshness  of  her  husband,  and  heard  the  cry 
11 


42  KITTY    GRAFTON.  132 

of  bor  favorite  child ;  in  an  instant  she  seized 
the  boy's  arm  with  her  left  hand,  and  drew 
him  behind  her,  out  of  the  reach  of  her  hus 
band's  grasp  ;  at  the  same  moment,  she  raised 
the  tongs  over  her  head,  and,  with  a  single 
but  effectual  sweep,  cleared  the  table  of  its 
contents  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  ;  bottles 
and  glasses  were  broken  to  atoms  upon  the 
floor.  The  contending  parties  stood,  for  a  few 
seconds,  fiercely  eyeing  each  other.  i  What 
do  you  mean  by  this  ? '  cried  Ethan,  in  great 
anger. — c  You're  a  brute,'  replied  the  exas 
perated  wife. — (  Dare  you  say  this  to  me,  in 
my  own  house !  I'll  make  you  pay  for  it,' 
cried  he,  holding  up  his  finger. — e  Your  own 
house  ! '  she  exclaimed,  with  a  look  of  ineffa 
ble  derision.  c  Hasn't  my  father  paid  for  it, 
already  ? '  she  continued,  with  an  expression 
of  taunting  bitterness. — <  You  shall  answer 
for  this,'  cried  Ethan,  boiling  over  with  an 
ger,  and  stamping  his  foot  upon  the  floor. — 
c  I'll  never  answer  a  drunkard,'  she  exclaim 
ed,  as  she  hurled  the  tongs  upon  the  hearth, — 
He  stepped  towards  her  in  great  wrath,  but 


133  KITTY    GRAFTON.  43 

his  companions  interposed,  and  held  him  back, 
while  his  highly-exasperated  wife  walked 
slowly  out  of  the  room,  leading  off  the  terrified 
little  Elkanah,  who,  never  having  witnessed 
such  a  scene  before,  was  now  made  acquaint 
ed  with  a  new  code  of  sensations.  Farmer 
Grafton's  friends  pacified  him,  as  well  as  they 
could,  and  took  their  leave.  As  they  walked 
homeward,  one  of  them  observed  that  Ethan 
wras  in  the  wrong  to  kick  the  little  boy  as  he 
did.  That  was  readily  admitted  ;  but  another 
remarked,  that  he  had  as  lief  be  one  of  Sam 
son's  foxes,  as  to  have  such  a  firebrand  tied  to 
him  for  life.  A  third  suggested,  that  he  did 
not  believe  there  had  ever  been  any  serious 
disagreement  between  them  before.  All  three 
agreed,  however,  that  Ethan  was  entirely 
right  in  one  particular,  and  that  his  cider  was 
certainly  equal  to  wine.  Pamela  Mickle  soon 
heard  of  the  affair,  and  nearly  wore  out  a  pair 
of  new  shoes,  in  spreading  intelligence  of  this 
domestic  uproar  from  one  end  of  Heathermead 
to  the  other.  The  match  had  turned  out,  as 
she  affirmed,  precisely  as  she  expected  from 
the  very  beginning. 


44  KITTY    GRAFTON.  134 

"  The  better  sort  of  people  in  Heathermead, 
I  mean  not  the  wealthier,  but  the  Christian 
aristocracy  of  the  village,  were  grieved,  that 
old  Jansen's  descendants  should  be  visited 
with  any  serious  affliction.  They  had  re 
marked,  with  regret,  that  Farmer  Grafton  was 
not  so  attentive  to  his  business  as  he  used  to 
be,  and  that  he  was  getting  somewhat  engaged 
in  horse-racing.  In  regard  to  his  wife,  it  was 
admitted,  on  all  hands,  that  her  temper  was 
exceedingly  violent,  when  excited  by  a  sense 
of  injustice ;  but  it  was  agreed,  that  it  did  not 
exhibit  itself  upon  ordinary  occasions.  In 
deed,"  said  my  old  master,  "  Kitty  Grafton 
had,  not  only  a  generous,  but  a  magnanimous 
spirit.  She  was  an  admirable  housewife,  and 
devotedly  attached  to  her  husband,  so  long  as 
he  deserved  her  affection.  With  her,  it  was 
love  for  love :  yet  her  affections  were  not  gov 
erned  by  any  selfish  principle.  There  are 
gentle  spirits,  that  can  suffer  all  but  death, 
and  yet  love  on.  There  are  not  a  few,  who 
still  love  those  barbarians,  with  whom  mar 
riage  is  a  milder  name  for  tyranny — they  love 


135  KITTY    GRAFTON.  45 

and  cling  to  the  very  brutes,  that  rule  them 
with  an  iron  rod,  and  why? — because  they 
are  the  fathers  of  their  children !  And,  with 
such,  this  is  cause  enough  why  love  should 
never  die.  There  are  some,  who  adhere  to 
their  drunken  husbands,  and  seemingly  with 
the  same  increasing  measure  of  devotion, 
which  they  themselves  bestow  upon  the  vile 
objects  of  their  idolatry.  They  love  the  very 
shadowy  recollections  of  their  brighter  days ; 
and,  while  those  heartless  wretches,  who  led 
their  confiding  steps  to  the  altar,  yet  crawl, 
like  diseased  and  degraded  reptiles,  upon  the 
earth j  the  doting  affection  of  their  fond  hearts 
is  sufficiently  powerful  to  beget  a  moral  oph 
thalmia,  and  they  can  perceive  nothing  to 
paralyze  their  love.  The  heart  of  Kitty 
Grafton  was  cast  in  a  different  mould ;  and, 
though  kind  treatment  would  probably  have 
preserved  its  affections,  in  all  their  original 
warmth  and  freshness,  neglect  could  not  fail 
to  chill  them  through — abuse  would  certainly 
convert  that  heart  to  stone. 

"  By  what  process  the  reconciliation  between 


46  KITTY    GRAFTON.  136 

Ethan  and  his  wife  was  achieved,  I  cannot 
tell.  They  were  at  church  the  next  Sabbath  ; 
their  conduct  towards  each  other  was  appar 
ently  civil  and  becoming;  but  I  thought  it 
was  not  so  affectionate  as  it  had  been. — When 
describing  the  Rhone  and  the  Arve,  an  agree 
able  writer  observes :  c  The  contrast  betiveen 
those  two  rivers  is  very  striking ;  the  one  be 
ing  as  pure  and  limpid  as  the  other  is  foul  and 
muddy.  Two  miles  below  the  place  of  their 
junction,  an  opposition  and  difference  betiveen 
this  ill-sorted  couple  are  still  observable;  these, 
however,  gradually  abate  by  long  habit,  till, 
at  last,  yielding  to  necessity,  and  those  unre 
lenting  laivs  that  joined  them  together,  they 
mix  in  perfect  union,  and  flow  in  a  common 
stream  to  the  end  of  their  course'*  But  for 
these  unrelenting  laws,  how  many  ill-fated  al 
liances  would  be  severed !  How  many 
wretched  beings  would  delight  to  break  away 
from  their  loathsome,  drunken  yoke-fellows  ! 


*  Moore's  View  of  Society  in  France,  &c.  Vol.  I 
Let.  24. 


137  KITTY    GRAFTON.  47 

Kitty  Grafton  had  no  ordinary  share  of  pride 
withal ;  and,  next  to  being  happy,  came  the 
desire  of  being  thought  so.  For  a  time,  she 
bore  her  afflictions  in  silence.  If  Ethan  was 
more  from  home  than  formerly,  she  consoled 
herself  with  her  children,  and  rilled  her  time 
and  her  thoughts  with  her  domestic  concerns. 
Her  little  green-house  and  garden,  in  the  care 
and  cultivation  of  which,  she  had  been  abun 
dantly  instructed  by  her  good  old  father  and 
mother,  still  afforded  her  a  source  of  rational 
satisfaction ;  and,  could  she  have  been  per 
mitted  to  enjoy  them,  and  to  see  her  children 
rising  into  life,  with  a  reasonable  prospect  of 
happiness,  she  might  have  lived  on  content 
ed,  though  not  absolutely  happy ;  and  accom 
modated  herself  to  her  lot,  as  the  wife  of  a 
drinking,  prodigal  husband — for  to  this  degra 
ding  appellation  Ethan  Grafton  now  bid  fair 
to  establish  an  indisputable  claim. 

"  Among  his  acquaintances,  there  were  some, 
who  were  not  entirely  willing  to  allow,  that 
Ethan's  cider  was  equal  to  wine  ;  and,  after  a 
fair  trial  at  the  Little  Black  Dragon,  a  tavern 


48  KITTY    GRAFTON.  138 

in  Heather-mead,  upon  thanksgiving  night,  (on 
which  occasion,  the  judges  were  so  drunk, 
that  it  was  impossible  to  obtain  any  thing  like 
a  righteous  decision  of  the  question,)  it  was  de 
termined  to  continue  the  matter,  for  further 
advisement,  at  Ethan  Grafton's  cottage,  upon 
the  ensuing  Christmas  eve. 

"In  the  course  of  those  unprofitable  years, 
which  had  followed  one  another,  like  billows 
upon  the  ocean,  since  old  Jansen  died,  Ethan 
Grafton  had  frittered  away  the  estate  in  an 
unaccountable  manner.  Under  the  old  man's 
will,  the  fee,  or  full  property  of  the  estate,  was 
in  himself;  and  his  wife  had  no  other  claim 
upon  the  soil,  which  her  father  had  won  by 
the  sweat  of  his  brow,  than  her  right  of  dower. 
Even  this  partial  interest,  Ethan  had  induced 
her,  upon  various  pretences,  to  relinquish,  from 
time  to  time,  until  it  remained  to  her  in  the 
cottage  only,  and  a  few  acres  around  it. 
The  ready  money,  which  old  Jansen  had 
left,  had  begun,  after  six  or  eight  months 
from  his  decease,  to  disappear.  The  stock, 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  were  either  sold, 


139  KITTY    GRAFTON.  49 

or  had  died  off;  and,  as  Ethan  neglected  his 
farm,  their  places  were  not  supplied.  In 
about  seven  years  after  Jansen's  death,  al 
though  there  was  some  show  of  property,  and 
the  stock  of  cider  was  still  kept  up,  (for  the  ap 
ples  grew  without  culture,  and  it  cost  little  to 
grind  them,)  yet  it  was  pretty  well  understood, 
that  Ethan  Grafton,  to  use  the  village  phrase, 
was  getting  dreadfully  down  to  heel.  It 
would  have  been  better  for  Ethan,  if  the  real 
extent  of  the  small  residuum  of  estate,  that 
he  yet  possessed,  had  been  more  clearly  de 
fined,  in  the  eyes  of  his  neighbors.  But  he 
was  still  supposed  to  be  a  man  of  property, 
though  his  affairs  had,  somehow  or  another, 
become  embarrassed.  He  accordingly,  on  the 
strength  of  this  delusion,  continued  in  tolera 
ble  credit ;  and  was  able,  now  and  then,  with 
a  little  swaggering,  to  borrow  a  few  hundreds ; 
and  thus,  by  increasing  the  burden  upon  his 
already  broken  shoulders,  to  complete  the 
work  of  his  destruction.  For  one,  that  knew 
how  much  of  Ethan's  property  was  deeply 
mortgaged,  and  how  little  was  clear,  hundreds 


50  KITTY    GRAFTON.  140 

in  the  village  of  Heathermead  were  entirely 
unacquainted  with  the  facts.  He  still,  like 
most  other  mortgagors,  was  himself  in  posses 
sion,  exercising  visible  acts  of  ownership  over 
the  property.  How  often  do  we  witness  the 
evil  consequences  of  such  a  condition  of  things 
as  this  !  The  man,  who  frequently  reiterates 
a  lie,  is  not  more  liable,  at  last,  to  fancy  it  is 
true,  than  the  proprietor  of  mortgaged  prem 
ises  to  believe  they  are  his  own.  How  fre 
quently  such  estates  are  found,  after  the  death 
of  such  nominal  proprietors,  inadequate  to  pay 
the  debt,  for  whose  security  they  were  con 
veyed  !  Yet  how  frequently  is  it  the  fact,  that 
such  nominal  owners  of  estates,  such  bona 
fide  proprietors  of  nothing,  have  eaten,  and 
drunken,  and  arrayed  themselves,  for  years, 
upon  the  strength  of  this  imaginary  wealth ! 
Poor  Ethan  Grafton  actually  believed  him 
self,  even  then,  to  be  a  man  of  considerable 
property ;  and  employed  no  small  part  of  his 
time, — when  not  occupied  in  the  demonstra 
tion  of  his  everlasting  problem,  that  his  cider 
was  equal  to  wine, — in  unsuccessful  efforts  to 


141  KITTY   GRAFTON.  51 

obtain  additional  loans,  upon  his  overburdened 
estates. 

"It  was  long  a  mystery,  in  the  eyes  of  those, 
who  really  knew  that  Ethan  Grafton  had  de 
prived  himself  of  three  fourths,  at  least,  of  all 
his  estate,  by  what  means  he  had  squandered 
his  possessions.  The  secret  was  well  l^nown 
to  a  few.  Neglect  of  his  business  readily  ac 
counted  for  his  not  growing  richer.  Horse- 
racing,  betting,  and  drinking  had  undoubted 
ly  diminished  his  property,  in  a  very  sensible 
degree.  Still,  however,  the  rapid  loss  of  his 
wealth,  especially  during  the  two  last  years, 
was  an  enigma,  which  the  wiseacres  of  Heath- 
ermead  were  utterly  unable  to  explain. 

"  As  the  destruction  of  the  outer  works  is 
commonly  among  the  earliest  operations  of  an 
enemy,  so  the  first  manifestations  of  the  pow 
er  of  that  evil  demon,  which  warred  against 
the  peace  of  this  once  happy  family,  were  the 
fallen  fences,  and  dilapidated  walls,  and  bro 
ken  windows,  about  the  cottage  at  Heath- 
ermead  End.  Kitty  had  long  found  it  ex 
tremely  difficult  to  obtain  money  from  her 


52  KITTY   GRAFTON.  142 

husband,  for  the  common  occasions  of  herself 
and  her  children.  Debts  accumulated  rapid 
ly,  and  duns  became  importunate  and  trouble 
some.  One  morning,  Ethan  had  just  finished 
his  breakfast,  of  which  a  portentous  pitcher 
of  cider  formed  a  component  part,  when  he 
perceived  Mr.  Bagley,  the  grocer,  riding  tow 
ards  the  cottage.  Ethan  comprehended  his 
object,  and  concealed  himself  in  the  cellar, 
previously  directing  Elkanah,  whose  mother 
had  stepped  out,  to  say.  that  he  was  not  at 
home.  Old  Gotlieb  had  not  read  the  Bible 
to  his  grandchild  in  vain.  To  the  grocer's 
inquiry,  the  boy  therefore  replied,  that  his 
father  had  told  him  to  say  he  was  not  at 
home.  This,  of  course,  produced  an  unpleas 
ant  eclaircissement ;  and,  when  the  grocer 
had  gone,  Elkanah  received  a  buffet,  which 
brought  him  to  the  ground.  This  broken- 
spirited  boy,  who  had  repeatedly  witnessed 
the  dreadful  uproar,  which  arose  between  his 
parents,  in  consequence  of  his  complaints, 
suffered  in  silence,  and  crept,  for  refuge,  to 
the  garret. 


143  KITTY    GRAFTON.  53 

"  Notwithstanding  the  immense  quantity  of 
cider,  which  Ethan's  farm  produced,  of  which 
he  sold  a  large  amount,  in  barrels  and  bottles, 
he  never  seemed  to  have  any  ready  money  ; 
and,  whenever  his  wife  attempted  to  get  an 
insight  into  his  affairs,  he  told  her  that  women 
were  fools,  and  knew  nothing  of  business. 
They  had,  at  this  time,  one  girl  and  four 
boys;  and  their  mother,  though  frequently 
exasperated  by  her  husband,  still  retained  her 
maternal  feelings,  and  patched  and  repatched 
the  ragged  remnants  of  their  little  apparel ; 
and,  as  yet,  though  hopeless  of  their  father, 
gave  not  all  up  for  lost.  Ethan  Grafton  had, 
for  some  time,  delivered  large  quantities  of 
his  cider  at  the  distillery  ;  and,  of  late,  he  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  receiving  a  few  barrels 
of  cider  brandy,  in  part  payment.  For  more 
than  a  year,  he  had  suffered  severely  from  the 
operation  upon  his  system  of  that  malic  acid, 
which  abounds  in  cider,  and  whose  effects 
are  perfectly  well  understood  by  medical  men. 
He  had  become  habitually  subject  to  severe 
colic;  he  had  even  indicated  no  equivocal 


54  KITTY    GRAFTOtf,  144 

symptoms  of  partial  palsy.  But  he  began  to 
feel  essentially  better,  from  the  occasional 
employment  of  the  cider  brandy.  Christmas 
eve  was  drawing  nigh,  upon  which  occasion 
the  question  was  to  be  fully  settled  and  de 
termined,  whether  Ethan  Grafton's  cider  were 
or  were  not  equal  to  wine ;  and,  as  he  was 
determined  to  establish  its  reputation  beyond 
the  possibility  of  all  future  doubt, — having  se 
lected  the  bottles,  which  he  designed  to  pro 
duce,  he  abstracted  thirty-three  and  a  third 
per  centum  of  their  contents,  and  then  filled 
up  the  bottles  with  an  equal  amount  of  cider 
brandy. 

"  When  old  Gotlieb  Jansen  perceived  him 
self  to  be  surrounded  by  a  little  progeny  of 
the  second  generation,  he  introduced  into  the 
cottage  at  Heathermead  End  a  custom,  as 
sociated  with  his  boyish  recollections  of  '  Fa 
der  Land,'  on  the  borders  of  the  Rhine.  A 
small  tree,  commonly  the  box,  in  its  pot  of 
earth,  was  introduced  into  the  best  room  of 
the  cottage,  upon  merry  Christmas  eve ;  and 
the  old  man,  with  the  assistance  of  Theresa, 


145  KITTY    GRAFTON.  55 

scattered  some  gold  leaf  upon  its  deep  green 
foliage,  and  .attached  to  its  branches  those  lit 
tle  presents,  which  were  designed  for  their 
grandchildren.  These  annual  arrangements 
had  been,  for  years,  a  source  of  heartfelt  sat 
isfaction  to  Gotlieb  and  his  wife ;  and  to 
their  youthful  descendants  an  object  of  de 
lightful  anticipation.  After  the  death  of  her 
parents,  Kitty  Grafton  had  never  omitted  the 
custom,  upon  the  return  of  this  happy  festival. 
The  golden  tree  had  never  failed,  once  in  ev 
ery  year,  at  the  appointed  time,  to  spread  its 
luxuriant  branches ;  and  her  little  ones,  happy, 
at  least  for  a  brief  season,  had  been  permitted 
to  approach  in  order,  and,  with  their  own 
hands,  to  gather  its  valuable  fruit.  Hitherto, 
Ethan  himself  had  appeared  to  feel  some  de 
gree  of  interest  on  these  occasions ;  and,  al 
though  with  increasing  indifference  to  the 
happiness  of  his  children  from  year  to  year, 
he  had  commonly  contributed  a  small  sum  for 
the  purchase  of  those  toys,  which  were  essen 
tial  to  their  short-lived  carnival,  upon  Christ 
mas  eve. — Upon  the  present  occasion,  Kitty's 


56  KITTY    GRAFTON.  146 

suggestions  and  hints  were  of  no  avail.  Ethan 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  them  all ;  and,  to  her  di 
rect  request  for  a  very  trifling  sum,  to  purchase 
the  means  of  happiness  for  the  children  upon 
this  occasion,  he  replied,  with  great  harshness, 
that  he  had  not  a  shilling ;  and  knew  not  where 
to  get  one  ;  and  that  it  was  a  stupid,  German 
custom,  and  had  lasted  long  enough ;  and  that 
he  would  hear  no  more  of  it.  Though  highly 
offended  by  Ethan's  answer,  which  contained 
something  like  a  reflection  on  her  parents,  she, 
for  once,  restrained  her  temper,  and  walked 
silently  away.  Her  husband,  probably,  would 
not  have  opposed  her  wishes,  and  denied  his 
children  these  long-expected  pleasures,  which 
came  but  once  a  year,  had  he  not  made  an 
important  engagement  for  that  very  evening. 
He  well  knew,  that  more  than  a  dozen  of  his 
associates  were  then  to  assemble  in  his  cot 
tage,  for  an  object  of  no  less  importance, 
than  the  decision  of  a  question,  in  which  his 
feelings  had  become  deeply  involved — wheth 
er  Ethan  Grafton's  cider  were  equal  to  wine. 
His  best  apartment  would  be  required  for  the 


147  KITTY    GRAFTON.  57 

use  of  this  convention,  and  Elkanah's  ser 
vices  would  be  indispensable.  But  of  all  this 
his  wife  suspected  nothing.  We  are  not 
prone  to  call  those  to  participate  in  our  privy 
counsels,  who  are  well  known  to  be  heartily 
opposed  to  our  practice  and  our  principles ; 
and  it  is  a  mere  act  of  justice  to  state,  that, 
however  excitable  and  violent,  the  temper  of 
Kitty  Grafton  received  no  adscititious  stimu 
lus  from  any  intoxicating  liquor.  No  pledged 
member  of  a  thoroughgoing  cold-water  society 
ever  abstained  more  rigidly  from  all  inebriat 
ing  drinks.  The  occasional  flashings  of  her 
natural  fire  were  said,  by  those,  who  had  wit 
nessed  them,  to  be  sufficiently  alarming — the 
stimulus  of  alcohol  would  probably  have  driv 
en  her,  sooner  or  later,  during  her  domestic 
troubles,  to  .madness  or  to  murder. 

"  When  her  husband  had  thus  refused  to 
assist  her,  in  furnishing  out  the  Christmas  fes 
tival  for  their  children,  she  went  up  into  her 
chamber,  and  sat  down  with  her  arms  folded, 
and  an  angry  cloud  upon  her  brow.  She 
had  not  continued  long,  ruminating  upon  her 


58  KITTY    GRAFTON.  148 

misfortunes,  (for  every  new  affliction  naturally 
served  to  revive  the  gloomy  record  of  the 
past,)  when  Elkanah,  who  had  been  present, 
during  the  conversation  between  his  parents, 
crept  up  into  the  apartment. — c  Mother,' 
said  he,  '  I  wouldn't  be  worried  about  it ;  we 
can  have  our  tree  just  as  well  as  we  had  it 
last  year.' — She  gazed  upon  her  first  born  ; 
— her  features,  for  an  instant,  changed  their 
expression  of  anger  for  that  of  sadness  ;  and 
her  eyeballs  were  glazed  by  the  gathering 
tears,  which  oozed  from  the  natural  foun 
tain  too  scantily  to  fall ;  like  the  moisture, 
which  occasionally  floats  over  the  brassy  sky, 
during  the  burning  solstice,  but  descends  not 
in  showers,  and  is  speedily  absorbed.  c  You 
can  have  your  tree,  Elkanah,'  she  replied, 
'  that  your  poor  old  grandfather  took  so  much 
pleasure  to  prepare  for  you,  and  whose  leaves 
he  tipped  with  gold  leaf.  That  is  in  my 
closet ;  but  I  have  nothing  to  hang  upon  it 
for  you  all,  as  I  used  to  have.' — c  Never 
mind,  mother/  said  Elkanah,  c  we  can  do 
very  well ;  Richard  has  got  his  hum-top  that 


149  KITTY    GRAFTON.  59 

he  had  last  year;  just  as  good  as  ever ;  and 
Rachel  has  got  her  doll;  Eli  says  he  will 
hang  up  his  whistle;  and,  before  to-mor 
row  night,  I  can  whittle  out  a  go-cart  for 
Robert.' — '  And  what  will  you  have  to  hang 
up  for  yourself,  Elkanah?'  inquired  his  moth 
er  ;  she  seemed,  for  a  brief  space,  to  forget 
her  misery,  while  listening  to  Elkanah's  inge 
nious  device  for  the  celebration  of  the  festi 
val.  A  faint  ray  of  sunlight  beamed  upon 
her  features,  as  she  contemplated  the  con 
tented  disposition  of  her  child,  who  could 
thus  volunteer  to  be  sufficiently  happy  in  the 
enjoyment  of  second-hand  pleasures. — '  And 
what,'  she  repeated,  c  will  you  hang  upon  the 
tree  for  yourself,  Elkanah?' — 'I've  been  think 
ing,  mother,'  said  he,  '  that  I  should  like  to 
hang  up  the  Bible  that  grandfather  gave  me.' 
"Christmas  eve  at  length  arrived.  The 
tree  had  been  placed  in  the  centre  of  their 
bettermost  room,  its  appointed  place  upon 
such  occasions,  for  many  years ;  and  already 
its  branches  bent  beneath  the  burden,  in  part, 
of  its  last  year's  fruit.  Kitty  Grafton,  sur- 


60  KITTY    GRAFTON.  150 

rounded  by  her  five  children,  who  were  re 
solved  to  be  happy,  upon  any  terms,  was 
busily  engaged  in  directing  the  simple  cer 
emonials  of  the  fete.  Her  countenance  had 
even  lost  that  expression  of  bitterness  and 
anxiety,  which,  of  late  years,  had  predom 
inated  there.  The  strength  of  the  maternal 
principle  had  subdued  all  foreign  recollections 
for  the  time.  The  almost  unvarying  custom 
of  her  husband  to  return,  of  late  years,  at  an 
advanced  hour  of  the  night,  had  relieved  her 
entirely  from  all  fear  of  interruption.  The 
sound,  therefore,  of  his  well-known  tramp,  on 
the  entry  floor,  filled  the  assembled  group 
with  consternation.  Even  the  mother  be 
came  pale  for  an  instant.  Her  husband's 
Voice,  calling  loudly  for  Elkanah,  summoned 
the  poor  boy  from  the  apartment.  In  a  short 
time  he  returned  with  his  father,  bringing  in 
as  many  bottles  of  cider,  as  they  could  conve 
niently  carry.  No  sooner  did  Ethan  discover 
the  preparations  for  the  festival,  and  the  tree 
in  the  midst,  than  he  inquired,  with  a  terrible 
oath,  addressing  himself  to  his  wife,  who  had 


151  KITTY    GRAFTON.  61 

risen  from  her  seat,  if  he  had  not  told  her 
that  he  would  have  no  more  of  such  German 
trumpery  in  his  house. — c  Haven't  I  a  right,' 
said  she,  as  the  color  mantled  into  her  face, — 
c  haven't  I  a  right,  in  my  old  father's  house, 
to  make  his  grandchildren  happy?' — 'Your 
old  father,'  said  he,  c  was  an  old  German  beg 
gar.' — '  You  are  a  liar,'  she  quickly  replied, 
as  she  clinched  her  fist,  and  her  eyes  shot 
fire. — Ethan  hastily  put  his  bottles  on  the 
floor,  and  all  the  children  but  Elkanah  ran 
screaming  in  terror  from  the  apartment. — 
<  There,'  said  he,  with  another  horrible  oath, 
breaking  the  tree  to  pieces,  and  hurling  the 
little  tokens  in  every  direction — '  that's  to  be 
gin  with,  and  now,  if  you  give  me  another 
saucy  word,  I'll  whip  you  to  a  jelly.' — Du 
ring  this  ebullition  of  wrath,  Elkanah,  unper- 
ceived  by  his  father,  had  picked  up  his  little 
Bible,  and  concealed  it  in  his  bosom. — c  O, 
father,'  cried  the  agonized  child,  c  beat  me, 
father ;  I  did  it ;  don't  beat  poor  mother.' — 
c  Get  out,  you  ill-begotten  brat,'  cried  the  in 
furiated  father. — c  Grafton,'  exclaimed  his 


62  KITTY    GRAPTON.  152 

wife,  with  an  expression  of  mingled  rage  and 
scorn,  <  I  wish  I  was  a  man  for  five  seconds, 
I'd  strip  your  tawny  hide  from  neck  to 
heel ! ' — '  Father,  father/  cried  Elkanah, 
1  look  up  the  road  ;  there's  folks  coming.' — 
'  I  see  'em,'  said  Ethan  Grafton  to  the  boy ; 
c  clear  off  this  rubbish  right  away,  and  set  out 
the  table ;  and  as  for  you,'  turning  to  his 
wife,  'if  I  wasn't  agoing  to  have  company, 
I'd  jest  cut  a  saplin,  and  strip  you  to  the  skin, 
and  tie  you  up  by  your  two  thumbs,  and,  if  I 
didn't  cool  your  German  blood  for  you,  my 
name's  not  Ethan  Grafton.' — c  Grafton,'  she 
replied,  in  a  steadier  tone,  moving  slowly  tow 
ards  the  door,  'I'm  glad  to  be  gone  from 
you  and  your  gang.  There'll  be  time  enough 
to  cut  your  saplin  when  they're  gone  ;  but,  if 
you  lay  the  weight  of  it  on  my  body,  I'll  die 
in  the  struggle  but  I'll  have  your  heart's 
blood.' — The  guests  were  at  the  door ;  Ethan 
had  no  time  to  reply ;  and  he  bit  his  lip,  and 
doubled  his  fist  at  his  enraged  wife,  as  she 
proceeded  up  stairs.  Elkanah  had  cleared 
the  room,  and  set  out  the  table,  and  stood 


153  KITTY    GRAFTON.  63 

trembling  in  the  corner,  awaiting  his  father's 
commands. 

"After  such  vulgar  greetings,  and  horse 
laughs,  and  slappings  of  shoulders,  as  com 
monly  mark  the  first  gathering  of  a  rustic 
club,  the  company  assembled  around  the  ta 
ble,  upon  which  Elkanah  had  been  directed 
to  place  several  bottles  of  cider  and  a  suffi 
cient  number  of  glasses.  It  would  be  an  un 
profitable  task  to  attempt  a  description  of 
those  individuals,  who  were  convened  in 
Ethan's  cottage,  for  the  purpose  of  settling 
the  c  cider  question.'  Next  to  Dick  Dagget, 
the  butcher,  who  had  relinquished  business, 
and  retired  upon  a  handsome  reserve,  after 
cheating  his  creditors  out  of  seven  eighths  of 
their  lawful  demands,  the  most  important  per 
sonage  was  Dr.  Pullet,  a  rubicund,  full-favor 
ed,  notable  blackleg,  who  had  a  local  habita 
tion  and  a  name,  in  many  towns  and  villages, 
in  which  he  had  exercised  his  skill,  by  filch 
ing  the  unwary  of  their  cash  in  hand ;  and, 
if  it  better  comported  with  the  convenience 
of  his  cullies,  the  doctor  was  exceedingly  ac 


64  KITTY    GRAFTON.  154 

commodating,  and  would  try  a  rubber,  for  al 
most  any  stake,  from  a  stout  gelding  to  a  goose 
berry  tart.  The  residue  of  the  group  consist 
ed  chiefly  of  young  farmers  and  mechanics, 
who  had  long  shown  a  preference  for  Ethan 
Grafton's  cider,  before  the  pleasures  of  their 
own  firesides. — c  What's  the  matter,  Grafton  ? ' 
inquired  one  of  the  company,  soon  after  they 
were  seated  ;  i  you  look  down  in  the  mouth.' 
— (  O,  no  great  affair,'  replied  Ethan,  scratch 
ing  his  head, — c  Elky,  my  boy,  fetch  the  cork 
screw.' — c  I  guess  he's  thinking  about  the  cat 
tle  that  Pullet  won  of  him  last  night,  at  the 
Little  Black  Dragon,'  said  one  of  these  boors, 
with  a  reckless  laugh. — c  I  hope  a  little  matter 
like  that  don't  trouble  ye,  Mr.  Grafton,'  said 
Pullet. — c  The  dogs  take  the  cattle,'  replied 
Ethan  ;  £  if  a  body  hadn't  nothing  more  to  be 
vexed  about  than  the  loss  of  a  yoke  of  oxen, 
he'd  be  pretty  well  off,  I  reckon — there,  tell 
us  what  ye  think  o'  that,'  filling  their  glasses 
and  pushing  them  round. — '  That's  royal 
cider,  Grafton,'  cried  Dagget,  smacking  his 
lips.  'But,  for  pity's  sake,  tell  us  whose 

m 


155  KITTY    GRAFTON.  65 

grave  you're  agoing  to  dig  to-night?  you're 
as  solemn  as  an  owl,  Ethan  ;  what's  the  mat 
ter  ? ' — c  Why,'  said  Grafton,  <  there's  a  skil- 
linton,  you  know,  in  every  house.' — c  Ha,  ha ! 
that's  it,  is  it  ? '  cried  Dagget ;  c  the  old  black 
mare  kicks  up,  does  she,  Ethan  ?  why  don't 
ye  switch  the  jade  as  I  do  mine.' — c  That's 
well  enough  for  you,  Dick,'  Ethan  replied, 
6  but  it  won't  work  quite  so  well  with  the  Ger 
man  breed,  I  tell  ye.  I  shall  have  to  try  it 
though,  I  guess,  afore  long. — But  let's  hear 
what  ye  think  o'  that  cider.' — 'Why,  Mr. 
Grafton,'  said  Pullet,  pouring  out  a  fresh  tum 
bler,  '  this  is  superexcellent  cider ;  there  can 
be  no  better ;  but,  upon  honor,  it  isn't  quite 
equal  to  wine.3 — c  That's  all  you  know  about 
it,'  cried  Ethan.  c  You're  up  to  cut  and  shuf 
fle,  doctor  ;  but  I  wouldn't  say  much  about 
cider  an  I  was  you.  This  here,  that  you've 
been  a  drinking,  isn't  such  superexcellent  cider 
arter  all.  The  old  man,  Jansen,  made  this, 
more  than  ten  years  ago,  and  its  lost  its 
strength,  and  got  a  leetle  flattish  ;  if  you 
should  drink  a  barrel  on't,  you  wouldn't  feel 
13 


66  KITTY    GRAFTON.  156 

a  mite  brisker.' — c  I  don't  know  about  that,' 
said  one  of  the  company,  '  I'se  drank  only 
two  tumblers  and  a  half,  and  it  makes  me 
feel  pretty  comical  any  how.' — ( I'll  show  ye 
cider,'  said  Ethan.  cElky — here — Elkanah 
— where's  that  brat  gone  ? ' — c  He's  asleep,' 
said  one  of  the  guests. — <  Wake  up,  you  lazy 
dog,'  cried  Ethan,  as  he  pulled  him  violently 
by  the  ear,  '  wake  up,  sir,  and,  if  I  catch  ye 
sleeping  agin,  I'll  give  ye  something  to  keep 
ye  awake,  I'll  warrant  ye  ;  here,  take  a  basket, 
and  bring  up  ten  bottles  from  the  lower  shelf, 
and  if  you  bring  the  wrong  ones,  I'll  take 
both  your  ears  off.' — Elkanah  rubbed  his 
eyes  on  the  sleeve  of  his  coat,  and  proceeded 
to  the  cellar. — c  What  do  you  value  your  gray 
mare  at,  Mr.  Grafton  ? '  inquired  Doctor  Pul 
let. — cMy  gray  mare,'  replied  Ethan,  'why 
somewhere  'twixt  one  and  two  hundred.' — 
'Well,'  continued  the  doctor,  £I  don't  alto 
gether  want  to  take  away  that  yoke  of  cattle, 
that  I  won  from  you,  at  the  Dragon,  without 
giving  ye  a  chance  to  win  'em  back  ;  I'll  put 
'em  agin  your  gray  mare,  and  try  another 


157  KITTY    GRAFTON.  67 

rubber.' — <  Done/  cried  Ethan  Grafton,  slap 
ping  the  table  as  he  spoke  ;  '  but  here  comes 
my  snail  of  a  boy  ;  let's  try  the  cider  first — 
what  made  ye  so  etarnal  long,  ye  lazy  brat  ? ' 
— <  I  come  as  quick  as  I  could,  father/  said 
Elkanah. — <  Ye  lie,  ye  did'nt ;  get  into  the 
corner,  till  I  call  ye,'  said  Ethan,  shoving  him 
aside. — ( There,  tell  us  what  ye  think  of  that,' 
said  he,  as  he  poured  out  the  new  specimen. 
— £  That  caps  all,'  cried  Dagget,  as  he  held 
out  his  empty  glass  to  be  replenished,  '  that 
goes  to  the  right  spot  any  how.' — '  The  best 
cider  I  ever  tasted  by  all  odds,'  exclaimed 
the  doctor.  '  Still  I'll  tell  ye  what, — there 
seems  to  be  a — sort  of  a — want  of  a — kind 
of  a — '  '  Haw,  haw,  haw,'  cried  half  a 
dozen  voices.  £  It's  pretty  good  cider  I 
guess,'  said  Gibbins,  the  journeyman  tailor, 
c  for  it  makes  your  tongue  take  plaguey  long 
stitches,  doctor.' — <I  shan't  cabbage  any  on 
it,  Gibbins,'  cried  the  doctor  rather  angrily. — 
c  Don't  spose  ye  will,'  replied  Gibbins  with  a 
sneer  :  '  how's  your  patient,  doctor,  that  I 
saw  you  a  physicking  this  morning  ? ' — '  I 


68  KITTY    GRAFTON.  158 

don't  know  what  patient  you  mean,'  replied 
the  doctor  gruffly. — 'Why,  don't  you  re 
member?5  said  Gibbins,  suppressing  an  ill- 
natured  laugh  ;  '  I  mean  Deacon  Lumkins' 
jackass.' — This  was  too  much,  before  such 
respectable  company,  even  for  a  horse-doctor, 
and  Pullet  threw  a  whole  glass  of  this  admi 
rable  cider  in  the  journeyman  tailor's  face, 
who,  having  nothing  in  his  tumbler,  where 
with  to  return  the  compliment,  hurled  the 
vessel  itself  at  the  head  of  his  antagonist. — 
For  five  and  twenty  minutes,  the  bettermost 
room  in  the  cottage  at  Heathermead  End 
was  a  scene  of  the  most  ungovernable  up 
roar.  Dagget,  the  butcher,  held  back  the 
doctor,  who  had  whipped  out  his  fleam  from 
its  leathern  sheath,  and  with  the  most  fright 
ful  imprecations,  was  rushing  forward  to  bury 
it  in  the  tailor's  jugular. — c  Don't  hold  him, 
Dagget,'  cried  the  little  journeyman  ;  £  let  him 
come  on,  if  he  wants  to ;  and,  if  I  don't  take 
his  measure,  my  name  isn't  Billy  Gibbins.' — 
There  can  be  little  doubt,  if  Dagget's  strength 
had  not  restrained  the  doctor  from  close  con- 


159  KITTY    GRAFTON.  69 

lact  with  his  adversary,  that  the  tailor  would 
have  cut  out  for  him,  in  horrible  style.  For, 
though  excited  by  the  cider,  he  was  compara 
tively  self-possessed,  and,  happening  to  have 
his  shears  in  his  side-pocket,  he  had  grasped 
them  firmly  with  both  hands,  and,  dropping  on 
one  knee,  after  the  fashion  of  the  middle  rank, 
during  the  formation  of  a  defensive  hollow 
square,  he  would  have  awaited  the  doctor's 
charge,  and,  in  all  human  probability,  have 
received  him  on  the  point  of  his  professional 
bayonet. 

"  After  a  deal  of  soothing  and  persuasion, 
the  contending  parties  were  induced  to  make 
the  matter  up.  The  tailor  admitted,  that  he 
did  not  intend  to  disparage  either  of  the  learn 
ed  professions ;  the  doctor  affirmed,  that  he 
considered  Mr.  Gibbins  as  respectable  a  tailor, 
as  he  did,  before  their  unpleasant  difference  ; 
and  the  company  once  more  resumed  their 
seats  around  the  table. — Dagget,  who  really 
appeared  disposed  to  act  as  a  peacemaker, 
upon  the  present  occasion,  readily  perceived 
that  the  reconciliation  was  not  precisely  com- 


70  KITTY    GRAFTON.  160 

plete ;  and  endeavored,  while  Ethan  pushed 
the  bottle,  to  revive  the  spirit  of  good-fellow 
ship  among  the  guests.  '  I  raally  love  eider,' 
said  he,  as  he  turned  off  another  glass.  '  I 
guess  I  could  get  along  without  water;  I 
should  miss  cider  though,  dreadfully.  But 
I'll  tell  ye  what  it  is,  it's  the  beatemost  stuff 
that  ever  was,  to  make  a  body  feel  crusty. 
There's  old  Miss  Belcher,  my  wife's  mother, 
you  never  see  how  it  acts  on  her ;  two  tum 
blers  o'  good  ripe  cider'll  make  the  old  wo 
man  as  good-natured  as  a  puppy-dog,  and 
she'll  think  the  children  can't  have  half 
enough  mince-pie  and  apple-dowdy ;  when 
she  takes  about  four,  she'll  be  as  funny  as  all- 
possessed  ;  but,  when  she  gets  six  full  tum 
blers  under  her  skin,  then  look  out  for't,  I 
tell  ye.  The  steam's  pretty  well  up  then, 
and  there's  no  safety-valve  but  the  old  wo 
man's  mouth.  She's  lost  her  teeth,  you 
know,  and  she  does  sizzle  and  sputter  away 
like  a  fury.  She  knocks  the  children  about 
like  nothing,  and  gives  nobody  no  peace,  till 
she's  slept  it  all  off  next  morning.  I  ax'd 


161  KITTY    GRAFTON.  71 

McGrudy,  the  schoolmaster,  who  knows  a7 
most  every  thing,  what  he  thought  was  the 
reason  why  cider  made  folks  crosser  than  any 
other  drink,  and  he  gi'ed  me  a  queer  answer  to 
be  sure :  said  he,  "  If  the  ould  apple  o'  discord 
brought  sin  into  the  warld  in  the  beginning, 
isn't  the  juice  o'  it  enow  to  kaap  up  a  clish- 
maclaver  to  the  dee  o'  judgment,  mon  ?  "  ' — 
The  guests  laughed  heartily  at  Dagget's  hu 
morous  remarks,  with  the  exception  of  the 
doctor  and  the  tailor.  Their  gorges  were 
evidently  still  up.  Each  sat,  with  a  cigar  in 
his  mouth,  his  chair  inclined  backward,  and 
his  chin  pointed  towards  the  ceiling. — Dagget, 
who  had  really  a  great  respect  for  the  doctor, 
was  not  thus  to  be  baffled,  in  his  efforts  to  re 
store  harmony.  c  Doctor,'  said  he,  c  what  is 
the  reason,  that,  while  beer  makes  a  body 
sleepy,  cider  is  such  a  cross  kind  of  a  drink  ? ' 
— c  It's  owing  to  the  disgestion,'  replied  the 
doctor ;  c  it  produces  a  sort  of  pulmonary  com 
bustibility  in  the  most  vitalest  parts.' — The 
tailor  cut  his  eye  at  Ethan  Grafton,  with  a 
half-drunken,  half-comical  expression,  as  he 


72  KITTY    GRAFTON.  162 

filled  his  tumbler. — Dagget,  who  had  ever 
looked  upon  the  longest  words  as  the  outward 
and  visible  signs  of  the  greatest  learning,  was, 
for  a  moment,  silent.  •  Dr.  Pullet/  said  he, 
after  a  brief  pause,  c  I  wonder  you  confine 
your  practice  entirely  to  horses.' — '  Oh,  sir,' 
replied  the  doctor,  c  the  other  branches  of  our 
profession  is  overstocked.  It  is  an  easy  matter 
to  attend  to  the  diseases  of  the  human  race. 
They  can  tell  their  complaints,  Mr.  Dagget.  I 
have  always  devoted  myself  to  the  noble  ani 
mal,  sir ;  but  I  believe  I  must  go,  Mr.  Grafton.' 
— (  Oh,  no,'  said  Ethan,  c  you  haven't  tasted 
my  best  cider  yet,  by  a  chalk  and  a  half.'  The 
doctor,  however,  insisted  on  the  necessity  of 
his  departure,  as  he  was  to  meet  a  few  friends, 
that  evening,  at  the  Little  Black  Dragon ;  he 
promised,  however,  to  recollect  the  rubber, 
which  he  had  engaged  to  play  with  Ethan 
Grafton,  upon  a  stake  of  a  yoke  of  oxen 
against  the  gray  mare. — c  The  doctor's  a  man 
o'  great  laming,5  said  Dagget,  after  he  had 
gone. — «  He's  an  ignorant  ramus,'  said  the  tai 
lor. — c  Gibbins,  you're  no  judge,'  cried  Dag- 


163  KITTY    GRAFTON.  73 

get,  somewhat  nettled. — c  A  tailor's  about  as 
good  a  judge  as  a  butcher/  retorted  Gibbins. 
— *  I  see  you  want  to  quarrel  with  me/  replied 
Dagget,  c  though  I  saved  your  bones  from  be 
ing  broken  just  now.' — c  Come,  come,  don't 
let's  have  any  more  o'  this  tarnal  gabble/  ex 
claimed  Ethan,  in  a  roaring  voice,  c  finish  this 
cider,  and  let's  have  another  lot.  As  to  the 
doctor's  laming,  I'm  no  great  shakes  of  a 
judge  myself,  but  he  has  a  sort  of  a  pleasant, 
winning  way  with  him.' — '  So  he  has/  replied 
the  tailor  dryly,  c  if  you'll  let  him  cut  and 
shuffle  himself.  He  won  your  oxen,  Ethan, 
and  your  great  white  horse,  slick  enough  ;  and 
he's  won  more  money  of  you  than ' — c  Do  hold 
your  tongue,  Gibbins/  exclaimed  Ethan,  get 
ting  rather  angry,  and  nodding  his  head  in  the 
direction  of  his  boy  ;  c  there's  no  need  o'  telling 
every  thing  to  the  town-crier. — Here,  you  sir, 
Elkanah,  if  you  tell  a  word  you  hear  in  this 
here  room,  I'll  skin  ye  alive.' — <  I  wont,  fa 
ther/  said  the  trembling  boy. — It  was  at  this 
stage  of  the  trial,  that  some  of  the  junior 
judges,  at  the  farther  end  of  the  table,  whose 
14 


74  KITTY    GRAFTON.  164 

voices  had  not  been  heard  before,  above  con 
cert  pitch,  began  to  be  rather  uproarious. 
The  removal  of  a  great  man  from  an  assem 
bly,  whose  presence  has  been  somewhat  op 
pressive,  will  occasionally  liberate  inferior  spirits 
from  their  thraldom.  Such  was  the  obvious 
effect  of  the  doctor's  departure.  The  confu 
sion  of  voices  began  to  be  immense.  No  one 
cared  a  fig  to  understand  his  neighbor,  and 
every  one  strove,  by  elevating  his  own  voice, 
to  drown  the  voices  of  all  others,  and  to  be 
heard  alone.  It  is  impossible  to  produce  any 
thing  like  a  faithful  description  of  the  scene. 
Here  were  ten  or  a  dozen  speakers,  every 
one  more  or  less  excited  by  his  potations  of 
Ethan's  cider,  and  each  in  his  own  way ; 
with  some,  anger  prevailed  ;  with  others,  pride  ; 
and  with  others,  simple  good  nature  and  a 
feeling  of  mawkish  philanthropy.  The  con 
tinual  strife  of  tongues  begat  the  most  unintel 
ligible  jargon  ;  words  ran  foul  of  one  another 
in  every  direction ;  sentences  were  dislocated, 
and  parts  became  strangely  dovetailed  to 
gether  in  the  oddest  of  all  imaginable  connec- 


165  KITTY    GRAPTON.  75 

tlons.  Of  the  little  that  was  meant  almost 
nothing  was  understood.  The  absurdity  of 
the  scene  must  have  been  surprisingly  height 
ened,  by  the  wildest  jesticulations ;  every 
vessel  occasionally  dancing  on  the  table,  as 
the  speakers  gave  it  a  tremendous  slap  by 
way  of  enforcing  their  remarks  ;  and,  now 
and  then,  there  might  be  heard  the  crash  of 
broken  bottles,  shattered  for  sport,  or  by  way 

of  testing  their    relative  strength. c  I've 

drank  wine  in  my  time,  I  reckon,  as  well  as 
yourself,'  cried  a  dapper  little  fellow. — Pshaw  ! 
that  last  bottle  was  a — Holloa — When 
I  sold  meat,  I  always  used  to  favor  the  poor 
— No  great  shakes  neither — I'll  bate  ye  a 
dollar — 'Tisn't  in  the  like  o'  you — That  are 
colt  will  go — Sir,  nobody  pitches  me  on  the 
point  o'  rationality — I  feel  for  the  poor — Fill 
your  glasses,  my  boys,  and  lets  see  if  this  here 
cider  isn't  equal  to — Fire  and  fury,  I  got  the 
burning  eend  o'  my  cigar  right  into  my  mouth 
— Wouldn't  give  the  vally  o'  my  bodkin  for 
all  he  knows  about — My  old  mare's  able  to — 
Slam  bang — There  she  goes — Crash — Haw, 


76  KITTY    GRAFTON.  166 

haw — Crash — More  bottles  I  say — Last 
town-meeting  day  I — Hold  your  yop — I 
won't — Its  a  lie,  that's  flat — I  say  as  I  said 
afore,  he's  an  ignorant  ramus — If  you  say — 
Come,  fill  your  glasses — That's  what  you 
shan't — Say  it  agin,  and  I'll  run  my  fist  down 
your — I  say  he's  an  ignorant  ra — Whack — 
Crack — Take  that-^-Take  care,  Dagget ;  he's 
got  his  shears  out — I  don't  care  the  vally  of 

a  sausage  for  his — Crack,  crack,  whack. 

Over  went  the  table,  lights,  and  glasses.  The 
butcher  and  the  tailor  were  in  a  moment 

rolling  on  the  floor. Take  away  the  villain's 

shears — I've  got  'em — Pull  'em  apart — No, 
no  ;  let  'em  fight  it  out — Peg  him  well,  Dagget 
— It's  a  tarnal  shame — There  comes  the  claret 
— Cry  enough,  Gibbins,  or  you'll  never  take 
another  stitch  in  this  world — Gie  me  my  shears 

— I  won't — Well,  enough,  then. At  this 

stage  of  the  performances,  Ethan  had  seized  El- 
kanah,  who  had  fallen  asleep,  notwithstand 
ing  this  uproar,  for  it  was  now  late  at  night. 
The  boy  screamed  aloud,  under  the  severe 
buffets  of  his  drunken  father — the  door,  at 


167  KITTY    GRAFTON.  77 

that  instant,  flew  open, — Kitty  Grafton  rushed 
into  the  apartment,  and,  seizing  Ethan  by  his 
shaggy  black  hair,  hurled  him  to  the  ground. 
It  was  the  work  of  a  moment.  Disabled  as  he 
was  by  drunkenness,  he  rose  for  a  last  effort ; 
and,  grasping  a  junk  bottle,  he  gave  her  a 
terrible  blow  upon  the  side  of  her  head.  She 
fell  immediately  upon  the  floor,  and  the  blood 
spirted  copiously  from  the  wound.  Elkanah 
had  rushed  into  the  road,  crying  murder ;  and 
the  inhabitants  of  the  nearest  cottage  soon 
hurried  to  the  spot.  It  was  at  first  supposed, 
that  the  blow  had  proved  fatal ;  but,  after 
half  an  hour,  the  poor  woman  uttered  a 
groan,  and  gradually  recovered  her  senses. 
Even  this  brutal  husband  seemed  to  be  shock 
ed,  by  the  contemplation  of  his  own  near  ap 
proach  to  the  gallows  ;  and,  for  a  whole  week, 
he  abstained  from  intoxicating  drink.  On 
the  first  day  after  this  event,  he  even  labored 
diligently  in  the  field  ;  and,  when  he  came 
home  at  night,  Elkanah  ran  to  his  mother  in 
amazement,  as  she  lay  upon  her  sick  bed,  ex 
claiming,  £  Oh,  mother,  only  think,  father  has 


78  KITTY    GRAFTON.  168 

come  home,  and  he  isn't  drunk  in  the  least.' 
— After  this  terrible  catastrophe,  the  company 
dispersed  with  all  possible  expedition ;  and, 
the  next  day,  when  they  had  slept  off  the 
effects  of  their  debauch,  they  agreed,  with  the 
most  perfect  unanimity,  that  Ethan  Grafton's 
cider  was  equal  to  wine. 

"  During  the  drunken  festival  of  the  prece 
ding  night,  Ethan  Grafton  had  not  found  it 
necessary,  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the 
reputation  of  his  cider,  and  establishing  his 
boast,  in  its  fullest  extent,  that  it  was  equal  to 
ivine}  to  employ  his  choice  reserve.  The 
bottles,  whose  contents  he  had  enforced  with 
cider  brandy,  remained  untasted  in  his  cellar. 
Good  ripe  cider,  containing  from  seven  to  ten 
per  cent,  of  alcohol,  was  enough  for  the 
work.  During  the  week,  which  immediately 
followed  this  domestic  outrage,  Ethan,  who 
really  appeared  to  show  some  tokens  of 
compunction,  remained  at  home,  or  upon 
the  farm.  A  parishioner,"  said  my  old  mas 
ter,  "  gave  me  the  first  tidings  of  the 
affair.  Neither  Ethan  nor  his  wife  was 


169  KITTY    GRAFTON.  79 

at  meeting,  on  the  following  Sabbath.  In 
the  morning  and  afternoon  Elkanah  occu 
pied  the  pew,  by  himself.  I  had  long  re 
marked  the  melancholy  expression  upon  the 
features  of  this  broken-spirited  boy.  Upon 
the  present  occasion,  I  was  particularly  struck 
with  it.  I  had  preached  on  the  subject  of 
prayer,  as  essential  to  domestic  happiness. 
After  the  service,  he  lingered  near  me  for 
some  time.  I  inquired  if  he  wished  to  speak 
with  me.  He  seemed  exceedingly  embarrass 
ed,  and  the  tears  came  into  his  eyes.  I  asked 
him  aside  what  he  desired  of  me  :  he  replied, 
that  he  wished  me  to  pray  for  his  father  and 
mother,  for  they  didn't  love  each  other.  I  in 
quired  if  any  thing  had  happened  :  he  replied, 
c  Yes,  sir,  but  I  have  promised  father,  that  I 
would  not  tell.' — I  then  informed  him,  that  I 
knew  the  whole,  and  should  surely  pray 
for  them  all ;  and  the  little  fellow  seemed  to 
be  comforted.  The  next  mornin^,  I  went  to 

O' 

their  cottage,  and  did  my  best.  It  was  a  hard 
case.  Old  Gotlieb  had  often  regretted,  that 
Kitty  took  no  interest  in  her  Bible.  Religious 


80  KITTY    GRAFTON.  170 

sentiments  had  never  taken  root  in  the  heart 
of  this  poor  woman,  nor  in  that  of  her  hus 
band  ;  and  the  present  stubborn  condition  of 
the  soil  presented  little  hope  of  success  in  the 
cultivation  of  such  exotics.  I  visited  them 
very  often,  but  it  was  a  vain  attempt.  Each 
avoided  me  at  last,  much  in  the  same  man 
ner  as  I  have  told  you  Ethan  avoided  the 
grocer,  who  came  for  the  amount  of  his  bill. 
When  1  first  called,  after  the  uproar  of  Christ 
mas  eve,  Elkanah  came  running  to  meet  me, 
at  some  distance  from  the  cottage,  begging 
me,  with  an  expression  of  alarm,  not  to  tell 
his  father,  that  he  had  asked  me  to  pray  for 
them.  Grafton  received  me  civilly,  and  seem 
ed  to  be  somewhat  ashamed  of  his  conduct ; 
but  he  had  already  recommenced  his  vile 
practices.  As  I  entered,  he  was  coming  up 
from  the  cellar,  wiping  his  mouth  upon  his 
sleeve,  and  had  apparently  been  once  more  at 
his  cider.  I  desired  to  see  them  together ;  and, 
with  evident  reluctance,  he  showed  me  up 
stairs.  Kitty  w^as  lying  on  her  bed,  with  a 
handkerchief  bound  over  her  forehead.  When 


171  KITTY    GRAFTON.  81 

she  saw  me,  i  I'm  glad  you've  come,  Mr. 
More,'  said  she. — For  a  moment,  I  hoped  I 
might  be  useful,  but  soon  found  myself  mista 
ken,  when  I  comprehended  her  motive. 
1  I'm  glad  you've  come,'  she  continued,  '  to 
see  how  this  villain  has  used  me :  you  was  a 
friend  of  my  old  father  and  mother.  What 
would  they  have  said  to  this  !  Look  here,  Mr. 
More,' — removing  the  handkerchief,  and 
showing  the  marks  of  the  blow — and  a  severe 
one  it  must  have  been.  <  There,  sir,  see  what 
I've  got  by  marrying  a  drunkard.  If  there 
was  a  thing  my  old  father  hated,  it  was  just 
such  a  dirty  drunkard  as  he  is.' — c  Mr.  More,' 
cried  Ethan,  as  he  sat  upon  a  chest,  'jest 
hear  to  reason.' — c  You  talk  about  reason  ! ' 
she  cried ;  '  if  I  was  the  devil  himself, 
I'd  just  as  soon  talk  about  righteousness, 
— reason — reason  to  be  sure — it  almost  chokes 
me  to  look  at  you,  you  base,  drunken  villain.' 
— c  You  had  better  suffer  your  husband  to 
speak,'  said  I  mildly. — c  Husband  ! ' — said 
she,  with  an  expression  of  rage  and  contempt : 
-  he  wants  to  speak,  does  he  ? — He's  so 


82  KITTY    GRAFTON.  172 

drunk  now  you  can't  understand  him  ;  besides 
he  can't  talk  two  minutes,  to  save  his  soul, 
without  a  pitcher  or  a  bottle  of  cider — don't 
let  the  villain  have  a  bottle — he'll  give  me 
another  blow,  as  like  as  not.' — c  Mrs.  Graf- 
ton/  said  I,  taking  my  hat,  c  if  I  cannot  be  of 
any  use  to  you,  I  will  take  my  leave ;  1  can 
not  be  of  any  use,  unless  I  can  understand  the 
right  and  wrong  of  this  matter;  and  that  1 
cannot  do,  unless  you  permit  Mr.  Grafton  to 
speak.' — c  Well,  Mr.  More/  said  Kitty,  in  a 
lower  and  a  milder  key, c  you  was  always  kind 
to  me  from  a  child,  arid  I  like  to  look  upon 
the  friends  of  my  parents  ;  and,  for  your  sake, 
I'll  let  him  speak.'— <  Sir,'  said  Ethan,  <  I'll 
tell  ye  the  hull  story,  if  she'll  let  me.  Ye  see, 
doctor — I  mean  Mr.  More  ' — c  There  now, 
didn't  I  tell  ye  so  ?  '  cried  Kitty  ;  '  he  thought 
he  was  talking  to  Doctor  Pullet,  the  gambler, 
that  cheated  him  out  of  his  oxen,  and  his 
horse,  and  the  watch  my  old  father  gave 
him,  to  keep  for  Elkanah,  when  he  grew  up. 

and  the' c  Stop,  stop,  Kitty,'  said  I, £  let  him 

tell  his  story,  as  you  promised  you  would.' 


173  KITTY    GRAFTON.  83 

— CI  was  only  a  going  to  say/  continued 
Ethan,  c  that  I  did  take  rather  too  much 
cider  a  Christmas  night,  and  she  pulled  me 
over,  afore  all  my  company,  by  the  hair  o'  my 
head  ;  and,  when  I  was  in  a  passion,  I  struck 
her  with  the  bottle,  and  Pve  been  sorry  ever 
since.  Now,  Mr.  More,  I'm  ready  to  make 
it  up  with  her  afore  you.  There,  if  that  isn't 
fair,  what  is  ? ' — c  Well,  c  said  I  to  her,  c  what 
do  you  say  to  that,  Kitty  ? ' — ( I  say,  he's  a 
liar,  and  fool,  and  a  drunkard,  that's  what  I  say, 
Mr.  More,'  said  she.  c  He's  a  liar,  for  he  hasn't 
told  half  the  truth  ;  he  knows,  that  I  pulled 
him  over,  because  he  was  half  murdering 
Elkanah.  He's  a  fool  to  think  I'll  ever  make 
up  with  him  ;  not  I  indeed.  I  told  him  long 
ago,  that  I'd  never  forgive  the  weight  of  his 
finger,  laid  on  me  in  anger:  does  the  fool 
think  I'll  ever  forgive  such  a  blow  as 
this  !  and  he's  a  drunkard,  as  every  body 
knows.  I  needn't  prove  that,  I  suppose.  He's 
drunk  now ;  he's  been  guzzling  cider  this  morn 
ing,  though  it  isn't  nine  o'clock.' — c  No  such 
thing,'  cried  Ethan,  ( I  haven't  touched  a 


84  KITTY    GRAFTON.  174 

drop.5 — '  What  did  you  go  down  cellar  for? 
I  heard  the  cellar  door  open  and  shut.' — 
6  What  did  I  go  down  for  ? — I  didn't  go  for 
cider  any  how — cider's  got  to  hurt  me  con* 
siderable.  It's  jest  this,  Mr.  More,  I'm  a  giving 
up  cider  pretty  much,  for  I  find  a  leetle  cider 
brandy  eases  my  pain,  and  makes  me  feel  a 
sight  better.  But  you  see  how  it  is,  Mr. 
More  ;  I'm  not  a  going  to  call  hard  names,  as 
she  does ;  that  isn't  what  I  calls  Christian. 
You  see  what  a  firebrand  she  is.  This  is 
all  I've  got  to  say,  you  see  what  she  is.' 
— Kitty  knit  her  brows  and  compressed 
her  lips,  and  seemed  to  be  gathering  her 
strength,  for  an  explosion  of  some  sort; 
and  Ethan,  as  she  turned  her  eyes  upon  him, 
seemed  to  cower  before  the  impending  tempest. 
— £  Yes,'  said  she,  after  a  brief  pause,  c  you 
see  what  she  is ' — pointing  to  her  wound, 
which  the  agitation  of  her  feelings  had  caused 
to  bleed  afresh — c  you  see  what  she  is — a  poor 
broken-headed,  and  broken-hearted,  but  not 
broken-spirited  woman — thank  God  and  the 
blood  of  my  old  German  father  for  the  last ; ' 


175  KITTY    GRAFTON.  85 

and,  as  she  uttered  these  words,  she  set  her 
teeth  and  clinched  her  fist,  and  looked  at 
Ethan,  with  mingled  defiance  and  contempt. 
— c  You  see  what  she  is — the  mother  of  five 
starving  children — the  wife  of  an  unfeeling, 
brutal  drunkard. — Ethan  Grafton,'  she 
cried,  raising  herself  upon  her  bed,  while  her 
countenance  underwent  an  astonishing  change, 
— c  you  once  saw  what  she  was? — I  confess," 
said  my  old  master,  "  with  my  perfect  recollec 
tion  of  her  great  beauty  and  many  attractions, 
in  her  youth,  the  tone,  in  which  she  uttered 
these  words,  touched  me  to  the  soul. — Her 
voice  faltered ;  its  accents  became  compara 
tively  gentle  ;  her  lips  quivered  with  intense 
emotion  ;  and  her  eyes  filled  with  tears. — 
'  Ethan  Grafton,'  she  repeated,  c  you  once 
saw  what  she  was — she  was  young  and 
light-hearted,  and  the  hard  earnings  of  her 
father — whom  you  delight  to  call  an  old  Ger 
man  beggar — God  forgive  you,  for  she  never 
will — those  hard  earnings,  and  they  were 
abm  dant,  were  all  marked  for  her  own. 
When  she  had  given  you  her  heart,  this  poor, 


86  KITTY    GRAFTON.  176 

confiding  idiot  persuaded  her  doting  father  to 
bestow  those  hard  earnings  upon  you.  If  you 
had  not  broken  her  heart,  she  would  neither 
sorrow  nor  sigh  for  her  wasted  possessions. 
And  what  has  made  her  the  firebrand  that 
you  say  she  is  ?  Was  she  not  always  a  kind 
wife  and  devoted  mother,  until  you  took  your 
ill  courses  ?  Did  she  ever  give  you  one  unkind 
word,  until  you  became  a  drunkard  ?  Did  she 
ever  dream  of  raising  a  finger  against  you, 
until  you  lifted  your  own  unnatural  hand 
against  your  unoffending  children,  the  bone  of 
her  bone  and  the  flesh  of  her  flesh  ?  Might 
not  the  violence  of  her  temper  have  slumbered 
forever,  if  you  had  not  become  a  spendthrift, 
and  a  gambler,  and  a  sot  ? — Look  at  him, 
Mr.  More ;  the  brute  is  half  asleep.' — So  in 
deed  he  seemed.  c  Why  do  I  waste  my 
breath  upon  such  a  drunken  carcass  ? '  she 
exclaimed. 

"  It  was  an  impracticable  case,  as  I  told  you," 
said  my  old  master.  "  I  inquired,  if  she  ever 
read  her  Bible.  She  frankly  confessed  that 
she  never  did.  She  said,  that  Elkanah  had 


177  KITTY    GRAFTON.  87 

sometimes  come  and  sat  down  by  her,  at 
the  bed  side,  and  read  portions  of  the 
Psalms  ;  but,  that  her  brain  seemed  to  be  on 
fire  so  continually,  that  she  took  no  pleasure 
therein,  nor  in  any  thing  else.  She  even 
declared  to  me,  that  she  believed  she  was 
losing  her  interest  in  her  children.  When  I 
left  the  cottage,  Elkanah  went  with  me  a 
few  rods  upon  my  way.  The  poor  boy 
solicited  permission  to  come  and  live  with  me  ; 
and,  in  the  very  earnestness  of  his  desire,  as 
he  enumerated  the  different  ways,  in  which 
he  could  make  himself  useful  in  my  service.. 
I  turned  from  him  to  hide  my  emotion.  I 
bade  him  remember,  that  we  were  all  born 
into  a  state  of  trial ;  that  he  was  called,  at 
an  early  age,  to  bear  his  cross ;  that  it  was 
not  a  light  one ;  but  that  God  would  surely 
support  him.  I  reminded  him,  that  his  three 
brothers  and  his  sister  were  almost  depend 
ent  upon  him,  in  the  present  state  of  the 
family.  As  we  parted,  he  kissed  my  hand — 
his  eyes  were  full  of  tears — c  Mr.  More,' 
said  he,  c  if  I  do  the  best  I  can,  you  will 


88  KITTY    GRAFT  ON.  178 

pray  for  me,  won't  you,  sir?5 — CI  will — I 
will,  my  poor  child,'  said  I,  <  to  that  God, 
who  tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb.' 
— He  went  back  to  the  den  of  wretchedness, 
no  doubt,  with  fear  and  trembling,  and  I  pur 
sued  my  way  to  the  parsonage ;  revolving 
various  projects,  for  the  relief  of  this  miser 
able  household,  yet  fixing  definitively  upon 
none. 

"The  notoriety  of  this  shameful  affray 
spread  far  and  wide,  and  became  the  signal 
for  the  gathering  of  those  gregarious  troubles 
and  vexations,  which,  saith  the  proverb,  seldom 
come  alone.  One  opprobrious  tale  is  fre 
quently  the  nest  egg  of  infamy. — Pamela 
Mickle  had  scarcely  ceased  to  cackle,  upon 
the  present  occasion,  when  every  hen  in  the 
village  of  Heathermead  began.  Many  dis 
reputable  facts  were  speedily  related  of  Ethan 
Grafton ;  and,  as  it  commonly  occurs,  they 
were  of  both  kinds,  described  by  the  worthy 
Dr.  Witherspoon,  such  as  have  never  hap 
pened,  and  such  as  have.  The  voice  of  the 
people  was  decidedly  in  Kitty's  favor.  All 


179  KITTY    GRAFTON. 

agreed  that  her  temper  was  tremendous  ;  but . 
the  conviction  was  very  general,  that  it  had 
never  interfered  with  Ethan's  domestic  hap 
piness,  while  he  was  temperate ;  and,  that 
the  same  strength  and  impetuosity  of  feeling, 
which  had,  of  late,  directed  her  words  and 
actions  against  him,  had  guided  her  tongue 
and  her  heart  as  zealously  in  his  favor,  until 
he  came  to  prefer  his  cups  to  her  affection 
and  respect. 

"  Duns  began  to  press  from  every  quarter. 
If,  in  poor  Grafton's  conscience,  there  yet 
remained  a  spot  unseared,  there  seemed  to 
be  no  lack  of  special  mortifications  for  its 
trial  to  ^  the  quick.  The  cider  manufacture, 
however,  was  now  at  an  end.  Kitty  used 
to  say,  that  she  should  have  rejoiced  over 
the  cause,  though  it  swept  off  her  paternal 
acres,  had  the  remedy  been  applied,  before 
the  disease  was  past  a  cure.  Several  mort 
gagees  entered  for  non-payment,  and  took  pos 
session  of  their  mortgaged  premises,  which 
included  not  only  Ethan's  extensive  orchards, 
but  all  the  real  estate  left  by  old  Jansen, 
15 


90  KITTY    GRAFTON.  180 

excepting,  as  I  have  stated,  the  cottage  and 
a  small  parcel  of  land  around  it ;  which  he 
could  not  mortgage,  as  she  had  resolutely 
refused  to  relinquish  her  right  of  dower. 
Ethan  therefore  looked  upon  his  remaining 
stock  of  cider  and  cider  brandy  as  upon  his 
last  hope.  Nevertheless  he  continued  to 
drink  on  and  be  drunken. 

"  Dr.  Pullet  was  a  man  of  honor,  and  had 
faithfully  kept  his  word :  the  promised  rubber 
had  been  long  since  played,  at  the  Little 
Black  Dragon ;  the  fortunate  cards  were 
never  missing  from  the  doctor's  pack  ;  and 
high,  low,  jack,  and  the  game  had  settled 
the  fate  of  Ethan's  gray  mare. 

It  was  long  after  this  occurrence,  that  Kitty 
Grafton,  by  permission  of  the  mortgagee,  to 
whom  the  land  now  belonged,  had  gone  with 
Elkanah  into  a  wood  lot,  in  which  her  father  had 
taken  no  small  portion  of  a  husbandman's  pride, 
to  pick  up  the  fallen  limbs  for  fuel.  She  had 
been  absent  a  couple  of  hours.  As  she  was 
returning,  the  younger  children  ran  to  inform 
her,  that  a  strange  man  had  come  with  a  cart, 


181  KITTY    GRAFTON.  91 

and  taken  away  all  the  flowers  in  the 
green-house.  This  little  building  had 
been  suffered  hitherto  to  remain  undisturbed. 
Most  of  the  glasses  had  long  since  been 
destroyed,  and  Elkanah  had  shown  himself 
exceedingly  clever,  in  supplying  their  places 
with  oiled  paper.  It  served  sufficiently  well 
to  shelter  a  few  flowers  and  shrubs,  which, 
through  all  her  troubles,  Kitty  Grafton  had 
still  delighted  to  cherish.  Several  of  them 
were  perennials.  Of  these  there  were  some, 
which  she  particularly  valued — they  had 
been  fostered  by  the  hands  of  her  father — 
she  had  often  been  present,  when  the  old 
man,  from  year  to  year,  after  delving,  and 
pruning,  and  irrigating,  had  brought  these 
beautiful  exotics  to  display  their  utmost 
charms,  and  had  called  Theresa  to  contemplate 
their  beauty. — Two  of  these  had  been  objects 
almost  of  veneration  with  Gotlieb  Jansen 
— they  were  from  'Fader  Land.'  Such 
considerations  as  these,  had  they  been 
faithfully  revealed,  would,  in  all  probability, 
have  imbued  the  spoiler  with  about  the  same 


92  KITTY    GRAFTON.  182 

measure  of  restraining  grace,  that  a  wolf 
might  be  presumed  to  feel,  when  informed, 
that  the  lamb,  upon  which  he  feeds,  was  the 
pet  of  some  gentle  shepherdess.  Kitty 
Grafton  hastened  to  the  spot,  and  gazed, 
with  a  look  of  grief  and  indignation,  upon 
the  vacant  shelves.  Nothing  remained,  save, 
here  and  there,  a  remnant  of  the  clematis 
and  the  passion-flower,  which  she  had  trained 
against  the  wall,  and  whose  roots  and  main 
branches  had  been  hastily  torn  away.  She 
had  not  long  returned  to  the  cottage,  before 
she  obtained  an  explanation,  from  an  old 
dame,  who  was  passing  on  horseback  to 
Heathermead,  from  the  next  village,  with  her 
panniers  of  cream,  and  eggs,  and  herbs,  and 
poultry,  for  sale.  Of  late  years,  she  had 
commonly  stopped  at  Kitty  Grafton' s  cot 
tage,  and  taken  bunches  of  flowers  to  sell,  for 
which  she  generally  found  a  ready  market, 
in  Heathermead  Centre.  The  old  dame, 
about  three  miles  back,  had  met  the  man,  on 
his  way  to  the  city,  with  the  whole  stock  of 
the  green-house ;  and  gathered  all  the  par- 


183  KITTY    GRAFTON.  93 

ticulars,  which  she  proceeded  to  recount. 
Ethan,  it  seems,  had  gambled  the  plants 
away  to  Dr.  Pullet,  a  fortnight  before,  and 
having,  that  morning,  informed  him  of  his 
wife's  absence,  the  doctor  had  sent  his  mes 
senger  to  remove  them  to  the  city  for  sale, 
as  expeditiously  as  possible. 

"  Kitty  Grafton  bit  her  lips ;  but  she  neither 
wept  nor  raved.  Her  silence,  upon  such 
occasions,  was  portentous.  It  was  that 
ominous  stillness  that  precedes  the  hurricane ; 
and  she  took  her  revenge. 

"  Ethan  did  not  return,  till  a  late  hour  of 
the  night.  He  came,  cursing  and  swearing, 
into  the  house,  anticipating  Kitty's  wrath, 
and  preferring  an  uproar  of  his  own  creating. 
This  evidence  of  sagacity  was  entirely  com 
patible  with  drunkenness.  He  had  obtained 
liquor  somewhere,  and  was  certainly  drunk — 
drunk  enough  to  be  dry.  His  first  thoughts 
were  of  cider,  and  his  first  step  towards  the 
cellar. — '  Give  me  a  light,'  he  cried,  as  he 
stumbled  towards  the  door.  <  Elkanah, '  said 
Kitty  Grafton,  '  don't  you  hear  ?  Jump  in  a 


94  KITTY    GRAFTON.  184 

moment  and  get  your  father  a  light.' — 
"  Why — a — holloa,  Kitty — why  that's  you 
now,  how  kind  o'  civil  you  be.  Like  as  may 
be  not — we'll — we'll  be  happy  yet. — I  feel  a 
kind  o'  happy  now — a — holloa,  Elky  dear, — 
lets  have  a  little  cider  to  show  your  poor  old 
daddy  the  way  to  the  candle.' — Elkanah 
gave  the  light  to  his  mother,  who  handed  it 
to  her  husband. — 'Take  care,  Ethan,'  said 
she,  as  she  opened  the  cellar  door,  fc'  don't 
you  fall ;  you  know  how  I  should  miss  you, 
if  you  should  break  your  neck.' — c  Thank  ye. 
Kitty,'  said  he  as  he  proceeded  slowly  down 
the  cellar  stairs  ;  e  this  is  jest  as  it  wa — was  in 
old  times.  I  can't  help  crying,  you're  so — 
why,  what  makes  the  brandy  smell  so  strong — 
holloa,  I've  cut  my  foot  with  a  glass  bottle.' — 
*  Cut  your  throat  with  another,  you  mean, 
drunken  beast,'  cried  Kitty  Grafton,  as  she 
slammed  to  the  cellar  door  and  fastened  it 
upon  her  husband. — Ethan,  drunk  as  he  was, 
soon  perceived  that  he  was  imprisoned. 
After  many  ineffectual  kicks  and  curses,  he 
found  release  impossible,  and  he  sought  in 


185  KITTY    GRAFTON.  95 

vain  for  comfort  where  he  was.  Every  bottle 
had  been  demolished.  Kitty  had  given  a  long 
hour  to  the  work  of  destruction.  Every  barrel 
and  keg  had  been  staved  ;  and  the  cellar  floor 
was  soaked,  with  a  mixture  of  cider,  perry, 
and  cider  brandy.  Ethan  raved,  and  vowed 
eternal  vengeance.  Kitty  made  no  reply  ;  but, 
securing  the  cellar  door  with  a  few  nails,  she 
threw  herself  upon  her  bed  for  the  night, 
telling  Elkanah,  if  he  let  his  father  out,  he 
would  certainly  murder  them  all. 

"  The  next  morning,  she  drew  the  nails,  as 
silently  as  possible ;  and,  setting  the  cellar 
door  wide  open,  placed  herself  behind  it,  and 
waited  the  madman's  approach.  He  soon 
came  forth,  uttering  torrents  of  oaths  and  im 
precations,  and  armed  with  a  stick  of  wood, 
which  he  had  picked  up  in  the  cellar.  He 
saw  no  one  but  Elkanah,  and  upon  him  he 
poured  out  his  wrath. — '  Why  did'nt  you  let 
me  out,  you  young  hell-hound  ?'  said  he,  rush 
ing  towards  him  with  his  uplifted  stick. — "  Oh, 
father — father  !  "  cried  the  poor  boy,  as  he  fell 
on  his  knees,  and  lifted  his  clasped  hands  for 


96  KITTY    GRAFTON.  186 

mercy.  Ethan  seized  the  lad  by  the  shoulder, 
and  lifted  his  stick  in  the  air — the  blow  was 
about  to  fall,  when  he  felt  himself  violently 
drawn  back  by  the  hair  of  his  head. — He 
suddenly  turned,  while  his  eyes  glared  in  hor 
ror  upon  the  newly-sharpened  carving  knife 
within  two  inches  of  his  throat. — c  Beg 
your  life,  you  poor  brute ! '  cried  Kitty,  as  she 
advanced  the  point  slowly  to  his  very  windpipe. 
— '  Oh,  don't — don't — mother,'  cried  Elka- 
nah. — c  Will  ye  beg  your  life,  you  drunken 
wretch  ? '  said  Kitty,  as  she  held  him  with  the 
grasp  of  a  tigress. — c  Murder,  murder ! '  cried 
Ethan,  while  his  eyeballs  seemed  to  start  from 
their  very  sockets.  He  made  a  strong  effort, 
and,  escaping  from  her  grasp,  rushed  into  the 
road. 

"  It  would  be  needless  to  pursue  this  painful 
and  disgusting  detail.  He  vented  his  rage, 
after  dark,  upon  Kitty's  flower  garden.  In 
the  morning  not  a  vestige  of  it  remained.  He 
did  not  even  spare  the  little  compartment, 
which  his  poor  children  had  been  permitted 
to  cultivate  for  themselves. 


187  KITTY    GRAFTON.  97 

"  Years  rolled  on — years  of  sheer  misery,  and 
domestic  warfare.  When  Ethan  came  home 
drunk,  she  used  to  beat  him  with  the  broom 
stick  or  the  poker.  He,  in  return,  when 
he  had  recovered  from  the  effects  of  the 
liquor,  would  cut  up  her  clothes,  and  sell 
the  apparel  of  his  children  by  piecemeal, 
whenever  he  could  lay  his  hand  upon  any 
portion  of  it.  When  he  was  not  so  drunk 
as  to  afford  his  wife  a  fair  prospect  of  success, 
in  a  direct  personal  encounter,  she  would 
sometimes  try  her  skill  at  long  shot.  While 
he  has  been  sitting,  partially  tipsy,  within  the 
cottage,  she  has  been  seen  with  her  apron 
full  of  stones,  on  the  outside,  taking  deliberate 
aim  through  the  window-glass  at  her  lord  and 
master,  and  not  unfrequently  with  the  fatal 
precision  of  a  skilful  engineer.  In  the  mean 
time,  their  poor  children  were  growing  up  in 
a  full  knowledge  of  much,  which  they  ought 
not  to  have  known,  and  in  utter  ignorance  of 
those  matters,  of  which  the  children  of  worthy 
parents,  at  a  similar  age,  are  commonly  inform 
ed.  The  degradation  of  Ethan  and  his  wife  ap- 
16 


98  KITTY    GRAPTON.  188 

peared  to  be  complete  ;  their  chief  employment 
seemed  to  be  the  infliction  of  all  possible  annoy 
ance  upon  each  other  ;  their  appearance  had 
become  squalid  and  miserable  ;  their  children 
were  the  most  wretched  and  ragged  little  group 
in  the  village.  They  lived  literally  from  hand 
to  mouth.  Elkanah  labored  industriously.  He 
was  now  rather  more  than  sixteen  years  of 
age,  and  he  cultivated  a  portion  of  the  land 
about  the  cottage.  The  neighbors  were  kind 
to  him  ;  and,  notwithstanding  her  wild  and 
ferocious  behavior,  Kitty  Grafton  was  still  an 
object  of  pity  and  regard  with  many  of  our 
villagers.  There  was  a  fanner,  whose  name 

O  ' 

was  Jason  Lambert.  He  had  been  one  of 
Kitty  Jansen's  lovers,  but  had  long  been  mar 
ried,  and  the  father  of  several  interesting  chil 
dren.  If  happiness  ever  found  a  resting-place 
on  earth,  it  was  by  the  fireside  of  this  pious 
family.  Jason's  wife,  upon  the  suggestion  of 
her  compassionate  husband,  was  charitable,  in 
many  ways,  to  Kitty  Grafton  and  her  children. 
They  had  other  friends.  Elkanah  was  con 
stant  at  meeting.  The  Grafton  pew  had  been^ 


189  KITTY   GRAPTON.  99 

sold  on  execution  ;  and,  after  that  event,  El- 
kanah  took  his  seat  upon  the  forms  assigned 
to  the  town's  poor.  I  told  him,  after  meeting," 
said  my  old  master,  "  that  he  should  always  be 
welcome  to  a  seat  in  our  pew.  He  was  very 
well  dressed  on  the  Sabbath,  and  I  was  some 
what  surprised  at  the  goodness  of  his  apparel. 
It  was  explained  to  me  afterward :  The  market 
woman,  who  used  to  dispose  of  Kitty's  flowers 
and  such  other  trifles  as  she  had  to  sell, 
had  lost  her  only  son,  who  was  about  El- 
kanah's  age ;  and,  moved  by  compassion 
for  this  poor  youth,  she  had  made  him  a  pres 
ent  of  the  Sunday  suit,  which  her  own  child 
had  worn.  Elkanah  was  obliged,  when  he 
took  them  off,  on  Sabbath  evening,  to  conceal 
them  from  his  father,  who  would  certainly 
have  sold  them  for  rum,  had  they  fallen  in 
his  way. 

"  Time,  at  length,  produced  a  change,  in  the 
affairs  of  this  miserable  family  ;  and,  if  it  came 
too  late  to  enable  Kitty  Grafton  to  recover  from 
her  degradation,  and  to  take  a  new  departure 
for  the  voyage  of  life,  it  was  certainly  pro- 


100  KITTY    GRAFTON.  190 

ductive  of  some  important  results.  Ethan 
had  been  employed,  by  some  charitable  neigh 
bor,  to  take  his  grist  to  mill.  On  his  way 
he  contrived  to  get  miserably  drank;  and, 
on  his  return,  fell  from  his  horse  head  fore 
most  upon  the  frozen  ground,  and  broke  his 
neck.  When  the  news  was  brought  to  Kitty, 
that  Ethan  was  dead,  c  The  Lord  is  merciful 
at  last,'  she  cried,  (  and,  if  Ethan  Grafton  had 
not  made  me  a  beggar,  I'd  gladly  give  you  a 
trifle  for  the  good  news.  The  devil  has  got 
his  own,  and  upon  his  own  terms  too.' — The 
wretched  condition  of  the  family  made  it  ab 
solutely  necessary,  that  Ethan  Grafton's  re 
mains  should  be  buried  from  the  poor-house. 
Some  of  the  neighbors  endeavored  to  per 
suade  Kitty  to  look  upon  him  once  more,  be 
fore  he  was  committed  to  the  ground.  But  she 
resolutely  refused.  '  I'll  not  pretend  to  mourn,' 
said  she,  c  when  I  rejoice  ;  and  you'd,  every 
one  of  you,  be  as  happy  as  I  am,  to  have  such 
a  mill-stone  cut  away  from  your  necks.  To 
be  sure  I'd  rather  look  upon  him  dead  than 
living,  but  I  desire  to  do  neither.  He's  run 


191  KITTY    GRAFTON.  101 

his  drunken  race — It's  God's  will,  and  I'll  be 
the  last  to  gainsay  it.' — The  funeral  took 
place  upon  the  following  day ;  and  it  was 
sufficiently  unceremonious,  to  quadrate  with 
the  notions  of  those,  who  are  the  most  averse 
to  pomp  and  pageantry.  At  one  o'clock,  in 
the  afternoon,  Purley  Pulsifer,  the  sexton,  ar 
rived  at  the  poor-house  with  his  hearse,  drawn 
by  a  lame  Canadian  pony.  I  went  thither, 
and  made  the  prayer,  which  was  interrupted, 
now  and  then,  by  the  sobbing  of  some  person 
present.- — At  the  conclusion,  I  looked  round 
the  room — It  was  Elkanah.  Some  kind  per 
son  had  furnished  a  piece  of  crape  for  his  hat ; 
and,  when  the  coffin  had  been  lifted  upon  the 
hearse,  Purley  Pulsifer  took  the  horse  by  the 
bridle,  and  Elkanah,  not  only  the  chief,  but 
the  only  mourner,  followed  behind.  I  step 
ped  after  him,"  said  my  old  master,  "  and, 
taking  this  interesting  boy  by  the  hand,  walked 
with  him  to  the  grave.  The  body  was  speed 
ily  committed  to  the  ground.  Purley,  who  was 
an  active  young  man,  stripped  off  his  coat,  and 
consumed  not  more  than  five  minutes  in  filling 


102  KITTY    GRAFTON.  192 

up  the  grave.  Familiarity  certainly  begets 
indifference,  if  it  do  not  breed ,  contempt. 
Purley  Pulsifer  closed  the  gate  of  the  grave 
yard  and  mounted  his  hearse ;  and,  in  less 
than  five  minutes,  he  was  trotting  his  little,  lame 
Canadian,  at  the  top  of  his  speed,  against  Boog- 
ley  the  butcher's  sorrel  colt  over  Heathermead 
common,  hearse  and  all. — I  gave  Elkanah  a 
few  words  of  parting  counsel,  and  requested 
him  to  visit  me,  on  the  following  evening,  at 
the  parsonage. 

"  He  came,  at  the  time  appointed,  and  I 
received  him  in  my  study.  I  inquired  after 
the  family,  and  he  informed  me,  that  his  moth 
er  had  not  said  a  word,  in  relation  to  his 
father's  death,  since  the  funeral ;  and  that  she 
scarcely  opened  her  mouth  to  speak  on  kny 
subject,  unless  some  one  of  the  children  spoke 
to  her  first. — I  asked  him,  if  he  had  thought 
of  any  plans  for  the  future  ;  and,  I  confess,  I 
was  pleased  and  surprised,  at  the  good  sense 
and  forecast  of  this  poor  lad,  who  had  been 
reared  in  a  den  of  misery — the  trembling  slave 
of  a  drunken  father — and  who  had  been  favor 
ed  with  no  other  advantages,  than  such  as  he 


193  KITTY    GRAFTON.  103 

had  received  from  his  aged  grandparents.  He 
told  me,  that  he  had  often  thought  of  my 
counsel  to  him,  and  that  he  had  tried  to  do  all 
he  could  for  his  mother  and  the  other  chil 
dren,  though  it  was  very  little.  He  said  that 
he  was  then  nearly  seventeen,  and  that  he 
had  often  thought  he  could  do  something 
better  for  them;  and  himself  too,  if  he  went 
elsewhere  to  seek  his  fortune ;  and  that  he 
was  sure  he  should  be  a  great  deal  happier  any 
where  than  at  home,  where  everything  brought 
so  many  distressing  recollections  to  his  mind. 
The  pressure  of  a  peculiar  affliction,  upon  the 
nervous  system  of  this  boy,  had  become  already 
alarming.  How  much  longer  the  same  cause 
might  have  continued  to  operate,  without 
producing  madness  or  idiocy,  it  would  be  no 
easy  matter  to  determine.  He  admitted,  in 
answer  to  some  inquiries  of  mine,  that,  for 
years,  his  sleep  had  always  been  disturbed  by 
the  fear  of  his  father's  anger ;  and  that  he 
had  often  leaped  from  his  bed,  while  dreaming 
that  his  father  was  pursuing  him,  and  rilled 
the  house  with  his  cries,  until  his  mother  had 


104  KITTY    GRAFTON.  194 

come  to  awaken  him  from  these  distressing 
slumbers.  He  told  me,  that  when  he  was 
walking  in  the  road,  or  in  the  field,  or  working 
in  the  garden,  he  found  himself  occasionally 
affected  with  violent  agitation  ;  and  that,  at 
such  times,  he  was  apt  to  start  and  look 
around  him,  in  terror.  He  stated,  that,  although 
he  knew  his  father  was  dead,  and  had  seen 
him  buried  in  the  earth,  he  still  retained  a 
vague  and  unaccountable  dread  of  him  ;  and 
that  this  condition  of  mind  had  kept  him  from 
sleeping,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  prece 
ding  night. 

"  I  asked  him,  if  he  had  spoken  to  his  mother 
upon  the  subject  of  leaving  home,  and  ascer 
tained  that  he  had.  She  had  told  him  he 
might  do  as  he  pleased,  and  did  not  even  in 
quire  into  his  plans,  in  such  event.  Her  state 
of  mind  was  evidently  deplorable.  Her  care 
for  her  children  seemed  now  of  no  higher 
order  than  the  solicitude,  which  a  hyena  may 
be  supposed  to  feel  for  her  whelps.  She 
willingly  attended  to  their  cries  of  hunger,  and 
procured  their  food,  while  they  were  unable  to 


195  KITTY    GRAFTON.  105 

obtain  it  for  themselves  ;  and,  with  the  same 
instinctive  principle  for  her  prompter,  which 
impels  the  beast  of  the  field,  she  gathered 
them  into  their  lairs,  and  watched  over  their 
safety,  and  kindled  into  fury,  upon  the  approach 
of  an  assailant.  She  appeared  to  care  not,  if 
they  Were  reared  in  utter  ignorance,  and  their 
religious  welfare  was  the  least  of  her  concerns. 
— Her  mind  seemed  not  to  have  lost  its  energy, 
when  roused  into  action  ;  but  her  hopes  had 
been  confined  to  the  present  world,  and  these 
hopes  had  been  effectually  blasted.  The  gen 
tle  yet  irresistible  springs  of  poor  Kitty's 
heart  had  lost  their  temper ;  those  fires,  which, 
for  years,  had  burnt  so  fiercely  there,  had  de 
prived  them  of  their  elasticity.  Her  mind 
therefore  remained  inactive,  unmoved  by  all 
other  impulses  than  those,  which  were  purely 
instinctive. 

"It  was  decided,  that  Elkanah  should  follow 
the  bias  of  his  own  mind,  in  which  there  ap 
peared  to  be  so  much  less  of  waywardness  or 
will  than  of  rational  calculation.  Elkanah's 
travelling  equipage  was  superlatively  simple  : 


106  KITTY    GRAFTON,  190 

a  small  bundle,  supported  upon  his  shoulder, 
on  the  end  of  an  oaken  stick,  that  had  be 
longed  to  old  Gotlieb  Jansen,  comprised  his 
whole  earthly  possessions,  real,  personal,  and 
mixed.  The  poor  fellow  had  suffered  most, 
for  the  want  of  a  pair  of  shoes ;  on  the  day 
before  his  departure,  I  happened  to  be  at  Job 
Rawlins's  shop,  when  Elkanah  came  in,  to  beg 
a  few  ends  and  the  loan  of  an  awl  to  repair  his 
old  ones.  Rawlins  was  thought  to  be  a  crabbed 
fellow,  and  I  had  prepared  myself  to  hear  a 
surly  reply,  possibly  a  refusal. — '  Well,  Elky,' 
said  he,  as  he  eyed  the  boy  over  his  spectacles, 
'  you're  a  going  to  seek  your  fortin,  I  hear.' — 
'  Yes,  sir,'  replied  Elkanah,  '  I'm  going  to  try 
to  do  something.' — £  Well,  boy,'  rejoined  the 
shoemaker,  c  I  guess  you'll  succeed ;  you've 
had  a  bad  sample  o'  life  to  begin  with.  Let's 
see  your  shoes — Pshaw,  them  aren't  wuth 
mending  ;  the  upper  leather's  all  rotten  ;  you 
couldn't  walk  ten  miles  in  these  old  brogues/ 
Rawlins  rummaged  over  his  drawers,  and  ta 
king  out  a  stout  pair,  told  Elkanah  to  try 
them  on  ;  they  fitted  him  exactly.  c  There.' 


197  KITTY    GRAPTON.  107 

said  he,  c  how  do  they  feel  ? ' — '  They  seem 
very  easy,  sir,'  replied  the  boy,  as  he  was  pro 
ceeding  to  take  them  off;  c  I've  no  money  to 
buy  a  new  pair,  and,  if  you'll  be  so  good  as  to 
let  me  have  two  or  three  ends,  I'll ' — c  Pshaw  ! ' 
cried  Rawlins,  '  put  'em  on  agin,  I  tell  ye. 
I  know  you  haven't  got  no  money,  Elky ;  if 
you  ever  get  rich,  and  come  back  here,  why, 
you  may  pay  me  for  'em ;  they're  six  and 
eight  pence  ;  and  if  you  have  a  hard  run,  I 
shan't  think  nothing  on't,  if  you  never  pay 
for  the  shoes.' — I  was  so  pleased  with  Raw 
lins,  that  I  ordered  a  new  pair  of  whole  boots, 
though  I  did  not  really  need  them ;  and  told 
him  Mrs.  More  would  step  in  the  next  day 
to  be  measured  for  a  pair  of  pattens. 

"  The  next  morning,  at  an  early  hour,  Elka- 
nah  turned  his  back  upon  the  cottage  at  Heath- 
ermead  End.  He  wept  over  his  little  sister 
and  his  brethren,  and  they  mingled  their  tears 
with  his.  His  mother  shed  not  a  tear.  And 
when  he  kissed  hercheek,  andbadeher  farewell, 
she  only  replied,  c  I  shall  wish  you  dead,  El- 
kanah,  if  you  ever  become  a  drunkard.' 


108  KITTY    GRAFTON.  198 

"  The  lad  stopped  at  my  house,  to  take  leave 
of  me.  Mrs.  More  insisted  on  putting  a  few 
crackers  into  his  bundle ;  and,  after  he  had 
gone,  she  told  me,  that  he  had  not  forgotten 
the  Bible  which  his  grandfather  had  given  him 
— she  had  seen  it  carefully  deposited  in  his 
little  pack.  He  took  leave  of  me  with  evi 
dent  emotion,  and  I  gave  him  my  blessing. 

"  A  few  days  after  Elkanah's  departure,  I 
made  a  visit  to  the  cottage.  I  came  upon 
its  inmates  by  surprise.  I  found  Kitty  sitting 
alone,  in  the  very  apartment,  in  which,  while 
old  Gotlieb  was  living,  I  had  enjoyed  so  many 
hours  of  rational  happiness.  It  was  now  mis 
erably  furnished,  and  without  a  vestige  of  that 
air  of  comfort,  for  which  it  had  once  been  re 
markable.  Gotlieb's  arm-chair  still  remained 
in  this  apartment,  and  in  it,  as  I  entered,  sat 
his  ill-fated  daughter,  with  her  arms  folded, 
and  her  eyes  bent  unmeaningly  upon  the  floor. 
She  appeared  to  me  then  decidedly  the  most  for-- 
lorn  and  miserable  object,  in  human  form,  that  I 
had  ever  beheld.  She  did  not  even  ask  me  to 
take  a  seat,  which  she  had  never  omitted 


199  KITTY    GRAFTON.  109 

before.  I  endeavored  to-draw  her  into  con 
versation,  but  my  attempts  were  fruitless. 
Short  answers  to  my  direct  inquiries  were  all 
I  could  obtain.  I  asked  after  the  children ; 
she  seemed  not  to  know  where  they  were. 
I  soon  after  saw  them  playing  near  a  pond, 
in  rear  of  the  cottage.  I  inquired  of  her, 
if  she  did  not  feel  an  interest  in  their  welfare : 
she  made  no  direct  reply,  but,  without  raising 
her  eyes  from  the  floor,  and  shrugging  up 
her  shoulders  as  she  spoke,  she  said  in  an 
under  tone — c  They'll  all  be  drunkards  like 
enough.' — I  strove  to  rouse  her  from  this 
condition  of  apathy,  by  pointing  out  to  her 
a  mother's  accountability,  for  her  faithful 
stewardship  over  the  children  that  God  has 
given  her ;  but  I  might  as  profitably  have 
preached  homilies  to  the  woods  and  rocks. 
Many  succeeding  visits  were  attended  with  the 
same  results.  Nevertheless,  she  gave  no 
evidence,  by  her  outward  conduct,  of  insan 
ity.  After  the  removal  of  the  grand  exciting 
cause,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  there  were 
no  striking  exhibitions  of  violent  temper. 


110  KITTY    GRAFTON.  200 

She  appeared  to  be  attentive  to  the  wants 
of  her  children,  in  regard  to  their  food  and 
clothing.  The  neighbors  were  kind;  and, 
with  their  assistance,  she  supplied  the  simple 
demands  of  nature,  and  still  continued  to 
patch  up  their  apparel,  such  as  it  was.  She 
never  mentioned  Elkanah,  and  whenever  I 
spoke  encouragingly  of  the  poor  boy,  she 
invariably  gave  me  the  same  laconic  and 
ominous  reply — £  He'll  be  a  drunkard.' — I 
made  an  application  to  the  overseers  of  the 
poor,  to  ascertain,  if  this  family  might  not 
with  propriety  be  received  into  the  poor- 
house  ;  believing,  as  I  did  with  good  reason, 
that  the  children  would  have  a  better  oppor 
tunity  for  acquiring  a  little  useful  knowledge 
There  was  an  objection,  in  the  fact,  that  Kitty 
had  her  right  of  dower,  in  all  that  still  re 
mained  of  the  homestead ;  and  could  not 
therefore  be  considered  a  pauper,  without 
visible  means  of  support.  She  was  no 
vagrant,  for  she  never  stirred  from  home. 
Clearly,  without  her  consent,  it  seemed  not 
easy  to  effectuate  our  good  wishes,  on  her 


201  KITTY    GRAFTON.  Ill 

behalf.  Accordingly,  I  sought  a  convenient 
opportunity,  and,  with  all  imaginable  cau 
tion,  suggested  the  propriety  of  such  a  meas 
ure.  This  was  the  only  occasion,  since 
Ethan's  death,  upon  which  I  ever  witnessed 
any  violent  excitement  of  her  temper ;  and 
my  well-meant  endeavor  cost  me  the  entire 
loss  of  her  confidence,  which  I  have  never 
been  able  to  regain.  Whenever  I  approach 
her,  she  turns  her  back  upon  me,  as  she  did 
this  morning,  with  an  expression  of  distrust 
and  aversion.  When  I  mentioned  the  poor- 
house,  upon  the  occasion  to  which  I  have 
alluded,  though  she  had  remained  entirely 
unmoved,  till  that  moment,  she  started  sud 
denly,  and  sprang  from  her  seat — '  Gotlieb 
Jansen's  daughter  in  the  poor-house  ! '  said 
she,  with  a  strong  and  passionate  utterance, 
and,  instantly  quitting  the  apartment,  flung  to 
the  door  with  violence,  and  left  me  alone. — 
I  never  was  able  to  reinstate  myself  in  the 
good  graces  of  Kitty  Grafton. 

"  More  than  six  months  had  elapsed,  since 
Elkanah    left  the   village,   when,  upon   my 


112  KITTY    GRAFTON.  202 

application  at  the  post-office  one  morning,  a 
double  letter  was  put  into  my  hand,  with  the 
New  York  post-mark.  It  was  from  Elkanah 
Grafton.  This  letter  was  tolerably  well 
written,  and  very  well  expressed.  It  con 
tained  twenty  dollars,  and  the  postage  had 
been  paid.  Elkanah  informed  me,  that, 
with  the  exception  of  a  short  illness,  he  had 
enjoyed  excellent  health,  and  that  God  had 
prospered  his  humble  exertions  beyond  his 
hopes.  He  stated,  that,  after  his  arrival  in 
New  York,  he  soon  obtained  a  good  situation, 
as  a  porter  in  a  store,  for  which,  as  he  was 
quite  stout  for  his  years,  he  had  found  him 
self  well  qualified.  In  that  station,  he  had 
very  soon,  by  untiring  industry,  acquired 
the  means  of  purchasing  a  hand-cart,  for 
which  he  had  found  constant  and  profitable 
occupation ;  and,  that  he  had  laid  by  an 
amount  nearly  sufficient  to  pay  for  a  horse 
and  dray.  With  these,  if  God  should  con 
tinue  his  good  health,  he  thought  he  should 
be  able  to  do  a  very  profitable  business,  as  he 
had  already,  by  his  strict  attention,  acquired 


203  KITTY    GRAFTON.  113 

the  good  will  of  the  merchant,  whom  he 
had  served  in  the  capacity  of  porter,  and 
who  promised  to  find  him  constant  em 
ployment.  He  regretted,  that  he  could  not 
conveniently  send  a  larger  sum,  for  his 
mother  and  the  children.  He  hoped,  if  the 
Lord  prospered  him,  to  do  much  more  for 
them  all,  arid  that  the  children  would  not 
grow  up  in  entire  ignorance.  He  informed 
me,  that  an  obliging  young  man,  a  clerk  in 
the  store,  where  he  first  obtained  employment, 
had  taught  him  to  write,  in  his  intervals 
of  leisure.  He  requested  me  to  pay  Mr. 
Rawlins  for  the  shoes,  and  tell  him,  they 
had  done  him  good  service,  and  to  apply  the 
residue  of  the  twenty  dollars,  for  the  benefit 
of  the  family.  He  concluded,  by  telling  me, 
that,  upon  the  first  night,  after  he  quitted 
Heathennead,  he  slept  more  soundly  than  he 
had  done  for  years ;  and  that  he  closed  his 
eyes  the  more  happily,  because  I  had  assured 
him,  I  would  certainly  pray  God  to  protect 
and  prosper  him. 

"I  was  so  much  delighted  with  the  recep- 
17 


114  KITTY    GRAFTON.  204 

tion  of  this  letter,  that  I  went  over  imme 
diately  to  the  shoemaker's  shop.  Rawlins 
was  sitting  upon  his  bench,  with  his  lap-stone 
on  his  knees,  hammering  a  piece  of  sole 
leather.  I  took  my  seat  upon  an  unoccupied 
bench  directly  before  him.  Holding  the 
letter  in  one  hand,  and  the  twenty  dollars  in 
the  other — '  It's  from  Elkanah  Grafton,  Mr. 
Rawlins,'  said  I. — f  Why,  how  you  talk ! 
Parson  More,'  cried  the  shoemaker,  as  he  set 
down  his  lap-stone  on  the  floor,  and,  resting 
his  cheek  upon  his  hand,  looked  at  me  ear 
nestly^  over  his  glasses,  as  I  commenced  read 
ing  the  letter. — c  There,'  said  he,  when  I  had 
finished,  '  don't  you  remember,  parson,  I  told 
him  he'd  get  along  ? ' — c  Yes,'  I  replied,  '  L 
think  1  do— now,  Mr.  Rawlins,  if  you'll 
change  the  bill,  I'll  pay  you  for  the  shoes.' — 
'  Pshaw,  Parson  More,  I  meant  to  give  Elky 
them  are  shoes,  and  I  set  it  down  as  lent  to 
the  Lord ;  'twas  a  part  o'  what  I  calculated 
to  give  away  this  year.  I  can't  take  no  pay 
for  them  shoes  no  way.' — I  was  about  to 
press  the  matter,  when  he  cried,  as  he  caught 


205  KITTY    GRAFTON.  115 

up  the  lap-stone — c  Pshaw,  Parson  More,  I 
can't,  no  how,'  and  began  to  hammer  the 
sole  leather  with  all  his  might,  while  he  struck 
up  *  Life  is  the  time,'  with  a  voice,  that  defied 
all  further  expostulation. 

"  I  proceeded  immediately  to  Heathermead 
End.  Being  thoroughly  aware  of  Kitty's 
aversion  to  my  visits,  I  knocked  once  only  at 
the  cottage  door,  that  I  might  secure  an  inter 
view,  opening  it  almost  at  the  same  moment, 
and  holding  the  letter  in  my  hand.  She  was 
in  the  apartment,  and  we  stood,  for  an 
instant,  in  full  view  of  each  other.  I  scarcely 
opened  my  mouth  to  communicate  the  tidings, 
when  she  clapped  her  hands  upon  her  ears, 
and  strode  off  towards  the  fields,  saying  as 
she  went,  '  I'll  hear  nothing  about  the  poor- 
house.' — I  watched  her  for  a  few  moments, 
till  she  had  reached  the  confines  of  the 
neighboring  wood  lot.  I  was  satisfied,  that 
our  direct  communications  were  at  an  end  ; 
and  sincerely  regretted,  that  I  had  limited  my 
power  of  usefulness,  by  approaching  a  subject 
so  exceedingly  offensive  to  her  pride.  I  had 


116  KITTY    GRAFTON.  206 

lost  her  confidence,  and  had  no  course  left, 
but  to  open  some  other  channel  of  communi 
cation.  The  nearest  neighbors  were  the 
family  of  Ashur  Mellen :  they  had  never 
been  particularly  blessed  in  their  basket  and 
store — they  were  poor,  but  pious,  industrious, 
and  eminently  cheerful.  Of  their  pittance 
they  were  ready  to  impart  to  those,  whose 
necessities  were  greater  than  their  own.  This 
family  had  been  unvaryingly  kind  to  Kitty 
Grafton  and  her  children.  Ashur's  only 
daughter  was,  at  this  time,  eighteen  years  of 
age.  Her  affectionate  temper  had  led  her 
frequently  to  Kitty's  cottage  ;  she  had  often 
taken  her  seat  by  the  poor  creature's  side, 
and,  in  some  slight  measure,  broken  in  upon 
her  desperate  state  of  mind,  by  playing  with 
the  children.  At  one  time,  she  would  give 
them  some  little  instruction  in  their  reading 
and  spelling ;  and,  at  another,  she  would 
rally  the  mother's  energies,  by  taking  their 
ragged  clothes  into  her  own  hands,  and  pro 
ceeding  to  repair  them.  I  confided  Elkanah's 
letter  and  the  money  to  the  care  of  Ashur 


'2)7  KITTY    GRAFTON.  117 

Mellen,  whose  integrity  was  a  proverb  in  our 
village.  He  told  me,  a  few  days  after,  that 
his  daughter  had  read  the  letter  to  Kitty 
Grafton,  who  uttered  nothing  at  the  close, 
but  her  customary  prophecy,  whenever  the 
name  of  Elkanah  was  mentioned  ; — (  He'll 
die  a  drunkard  yet.'  Farmer  Mellen  informed 
me,  that  Kitty  would  not  receive  the  money, 
nor  give  any  direction  how  it  should  be  em 
ployed  ;  and  that  his  daughter  had  therefore 
taken  the  charge  upon  herself  of  laying  it 
out  to  the  best  advantage.  '  You've  seen,' 
said  Ashur  Mellen,  i  how  our  Rhoda  flies 
round  with  her  rake  in  haying  time,  jest  afore 
a  thunder  shower, — why,  Mr.  More,'  said  he, 
1  she's  equal  to  any  two  hired  men ; — well, 
she's  jest  as  busy  now  about  fixing  these  here 
children.  She's  been  at  it,  from  morning  to 
night,  ever  since  you  was  t'our  house.  'Zeik 
Atherton,  that's  been  a  kind  o'  courting 
Rhoda,  you  know,  says,  arter  what  he's  seed 
for  the  last  three  days,  he'll  trust  her  with 
anybody's  children.' — I  well  recollect  the 
delight  I  felt,  on  the  following  Sabbath,  after 


118  KITTY    CRAFTON.  208 

T  had  been  seated,  for  a  short  time,  in  my 
pulpit,  when  I  saw  Rhoda  Mellen,  with  an 
air  of  justifiable  pride  and  pleasure,  leading 
Kitty  Grafton's  four  children,  tidily  appar 
elled,  into  God's  holy  temple.  I  took  special 
care  to  notice  them  after  the  service  ;  and, 
in  a  voice,  sufficiently  distinct  to  be  heard 
by  more  than  one,  I  commended  Rhoda  for 
her  zeal  for  these  orphans — and  such  in 
reality  they  were.  I  never  was  given  to 
making  matches,"  continued  my  old  master, 
"  but  I  wished  Rhoda  Mellen  a  good  husband, 
with  all  my  heart,  and  1  was  particularly 
careful  to  bestow  this  commendation  upon  the 
poor  girl,  in  the  hearing  of  Ezekiel  Ath- 
erton,  who,  though  he  had  not  yet  offered 
himself,  was  paying  her  considerable  atten 
tion.  Atherton  was  a  worthy  young  m?.n, 
and  owned  a  farm,  a  small  one  to  be  sure, 
but  it  was  unencumbered.  He  .was  evidently 
gratified,  quite  as  sincerely  as  Rhoda  herself, 
by  my  approbation,  and  seemed  to  catch  no 
small  portion  of  her  enthusiasm.  His  horse 
and  wagon  were  speedily  at  the  church 


209  KITTY    GRAFTON.  119 

door;  Rhoda  could  not  decently  refuse  his 
invitation  ;  though,  as  she  caught  a  glance 
at  the  groups,  who  were  tittering  and  sim 
pering  on  the  church  steps,  in  the  best  good 
nature  withal,  she  blushed  to  the  very  roots 
of  her  fine  black  hair.  Kitty's  four  children 
were  also  accommodated  in  the  wagon,  and 
Ezekiel  Atherton,  as  he  drove  off,  with  his 
shining  face,  gave  a  familiar  nod,  and  a 
happy  smile  to  his  waggish  companions,  who 
complimented  him  upon  his  growing  family. 
Ashur  Mellen  called  on  me  the  next  morn 
ing,  before  breakfast,  a  full  week,  before  I 
could  possibly  comply  with  his  request,  to 
ask  me  to  publish  the  bans  of  marriage  be 
tween  Ezekiel  Atherton  and  his  daughter 
Rhoda. 

"  Rhoda  Mellen's  anticipations  of  brighter 
days  to  come  abated  not  the  tithe  of  a  hair  of 
her  interest  in  these  poor  children.  Her 
attentions  to  them  and  their  wretched  mother 
seemed  rather  to  be  multiplied. 

"  I  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  Elkanah's 
letter,  directing,  as  he  had  requested,  to  the 


120  KITTY    GRAFTON.  210 

care  of  A.  I.  McFinnison  and  Co.,  in 
forming  him  in  what  manner  the  money 
had  been  employed,  and  furnishing  such  in 
formation  as  I  thought  proper.  His  letters 
and  supplies  of  money  continued  to  reach 
me  for  the  space  of  two  years,  with  intermis 
sions  of  three  or  four  months.  From  their 
general  tenor  I  was  led  to  believe,  that  he 
was  growing  in  favor  with  God  and  man. 
While  he  described  his  prosperity,  as  tran 
scending  his  utmost  expectations,  he  appeared 
— and  his  language  could  not  have  been  mis 
taken — to  feel  the  same  humble  accountabil 
ity  to  God,  that  an  unexceptionable  steward 
ought  to  feel  to  a  master,  from  whom  he  has 
received  all  that  he  enjoys.  He  had  made 
valuable  friends  ;  and  he  appeared  to  be  in 
no  danger  of  losing  them.  The  master, 
whom  he  had  first  served  in  the  city,  having 
found  him  faithful  over  a  few  things,  had 
made  him  steward  over  many.  The  same 
individual,  a  clerk  in  the  store,  who  had 
taught  him  to  write,  had  instructed  him  also 
in  arithmetic  and  book-keeping.  His  em- 


211  KITTY    GRAFTON.  121 

ployer  had  not  failed  to  perceive,  that,  in 
addition  to  his  religious  and  moral  qualifica 
tions,  his  industry,  activity,  and  intelligence, 
and  highly  acceptable  manners,  fitted  him  for 
a  more  elevated  walk.  At  the  expiration  of 
fourteen  months,  he  disposed  of  his  horse  and 
dray,  and  was  received  into  the  counting 
room,  as  a  clerk.  The  business  of  the  firm 
had  led  them  to  cultivate  extensive  connec 
tions  with  the  western  country.  Two  years 
had  scarcely  elapsed,  since  Elkanah  Grafton 
departed  from  the  village, — the  penniless 
descendant  of  a  drunken  father, — before  his 
commercial  friends  thought  him  so  far  worthy 
of  their  confidence,  as  to  employ  him  at  a 
distance,  and  to  give  him  such  a  credit  as  to 
enable  him  to  commence  business  on  his  own 
account.  He  advised  me  of  this  good  for 
tune.  Seven  months  elapsed,  after  the  recep 
tion  of  this  letter,  before  another  reached  me 
from  New  Orleans.  His  accounts  were  still 
exceedingly  flattering,  in  regard  to  his  suc 
cess  ;  but  they  were  so  justly  expressed,  and 
so  admirably  well  tempered  with  a  firm 
18 


122  KITTY    GRAPTON.  212 

reliance  upon  God, — with  such  a  Christian 
submission  to  his  will, — with  such  a  humble 
willingness,  whether  he  giveth  or  taketh 
away,  to  bless  his  holy  name, — that  I  truly 
believe,  had  this  young  man  been  suddenly 
reduced  to  penury  again,  he  would  have 
borne  the  cress  like  a  veteran  soldier.  Such, 
however,  seemed  not  as  yet  to  be  the  destiny 
of  Heaven.  I  had  nearly  forgotten  to  state, 
that,  after  I  had  informed  him  of  Rhoda 
Mellen's  great  kindness  to  his  mother  and 
the  children,  he  frequently  requested  me 
to  employ  a  part  of  his  remittances  for 
their  benefit. — Rawlins  was  growing  old ; 
his  eyesight  began  to  fail  him;  and  he 
could  scarcely  express  the  satisfaction 
he  enjoyed,  when  I  presented  him  with  a 
large  Family  Bible,  which  I  had  been  re 
quested  by  Elkanah,  as  he  was  about  leaving 
New  York  for  the  western  country,  to  pur 
chase  on  his  account.  c  Why,  pshaw,  Mr. 
More,  I  want  to  know,'  said  he,  as  he  stared 
at  the  binding;  'this  here's  slick  enough. 
What  a  raal  good  type  'tis,'  he  continued,  as 


213  KITTY   GRAFTON.  123 

he  opened  at  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis. — 
'  That  are  I  is  full  as  long  as  my  pegging  awl 
— and  there,  Mr.  More,  only  look  at  that  are 
capital  G  ;  its  every  bit  and  grain  as  big  as  a 
young  woman's  heel-tap.  Well,  for  sartain,  its 
the  polite  thing  in  Elky  to  send  me  sich  a  grand 
present.  I  wonder  how  he's  off,  for  shoes, 
Mr.  More  ;  though,  as  like  as  not,  he  would'nt 
wear  such  as  I  make,  now  he's  getting  on  so 
fine.  My  old  hand  hasn't  lost  its  cunning, 
for  all  that ;  look  a  here,  Mr.  More,'  said  he, 
taking  down  a  pair  of  military  boots,  which 
he  had  just  completed  for  Colonel  Pepper- 
grass,  'what  d'ye  say  to  them  ? ' — I  told  him  I 
thought  his  work  as  respectable  as  any  body's. 
— c  Pshaw,  Mr.  More  ! '  said  he,  c  when  you 
write,  you'll  please  to  give  my  best  benevo 
lence  to  Elky,  and  thank  him  peticlar.' 

"  After  Rhoda  Mellen  was  married,  though 
the  distance  was  materially  increased,  be 
tween  her  residence  and  the  Grafton  cottage, 
she  still  contrived  to  see  the  children  fre 
quently,  and  took  them  with  her  to  meeting 
almost  every  Sabbath. 


124  KITTY    GRAFTON.  214 

"  Years  rolled  away,  and  no  visible  change 
occurred  in  regard  to  Kitty  Grafton.  She  rose 
up  and  lay  down  with  her  accustomed  regu 
larity.  She  prepared  the  simple  meals  for 
herself  and  her  children ;  and  gave  some  at 
tention  to  their  clothing.  When  not  thus  en 
gaged,  her  mind  appeared  to  settle  into  that 
state  of  bitter  despondency,  which  I  have 
already  described. 

"  I  was  sitting,  one  evening,  in  this  very 
chair,  and  looking  out  of  that  window — it  was 
nearly  sunset — Mrs.  More  and  myself  had 
been  remarking,  a  short  time  before,  upon 
the  very  rapid  passage  of  those  five  years, 
which  had  gone  by,  since  Elkanah  left  the 
village.  The  mail  stage  stopped  at  the  door  ; 
and  a  well-dressed  young  man  alighted  and 
advanced  towards  it. — It  was  Elkanah  Graf- 
ton — I  met  him  in  the  entry — he  embraced 
rne  with  the  affection  of  a  child,  and  1  wept 
over  him  like  a  father. — After  a  brief  conver 
sation  between  him  and  Mrs.  More>  respect 
ing  his  mother  and  the  children,  he  expressed 
a  wish  to  visit  the  cottage.  We  proceeded 


215  KITTY    GRAFTON.  125 

together.  I  informed  him,  by  the  way,  of 
the  circumstance,  which  had  lost  me  his 
mother's  confidence,  and  he  disclosed  to  me 
his  plans,  respecting  his  younger  brothers 
and  his  sister.  He  told  me,  that  the  Lord 
had  placed  the  means  abundantly  in  his 
power,  for  doing  good,  and  that  he  felt  ac 
countable  for  their  employment.  When  we 
arrived  at  the  cottage,  the  children  were 
playing  before  the  door.  The  elder  instantly 
recognized  his  brother,  and  exclaimed,  as  he 
ran  into  the  house,  c  Mother,  Elkanah  has 
come  ! ' — Kitty  came  forth  with  a  degree  of 
earnestness,  in  her  look  and  manner,  which  sur 
prised  me.  There  was  a  faint  smile  upon  her 
features,  and  her  lips  trembled  with  emo 
tion.  c  Elkanah  ! '  said  she  ; — but  as  he  ap 
proached  her,  she  observed  me,  for  the  first 
time,  and  clapping  her  hands  upon  her  ears, 
she  returned  to  the  house,  exclaiming,  as 
upon  a  former  occasion,  c  Fll  hear  nothing  of 
the  poor-house.' 

"  Elkanah  followed  her  into  the  house,  and 
I  told  the  children  to  inform  him,  that  I  had 


126  KITTY    GRAFTON.  216 

returned  to  the  parsonage,  and  should  expect 
him  there. 

"  It  was  late  in  the  evening,  before  he  came. 
His  spirits  were  evidently  depressed  hy  the 
scene  he  had  witnessed.  He  informed  me, 
that,  when  he  had  followed  his  mother  into 
the  cottage,  there  was  no  longer  the  slightest 
evidence  of  emotion  ;  that  his  efforts  to  rouse 
her  from  her  apathy  were  utterly  ineffectual  ; 
and  that  she  had  scarcely  appeared  to  listen 
to  his  propositions  for  her  advantage.  When 
he  suggested  a  removal  from  the  cottage  to  a 
more  comfortable  residence,  she  shook  her 
head  with  a  slight  expression  of  anger ;  and, 
after  a  short  pause,  exclaimed,  £  Here  I  was 
born,  and  here  I  will  die.' — In  answer  to  his 
request  for  permission  to  remove  the  children 
for  the  purposes  of  education,  she  said,  c  Very 
well — they'll  all  be  drunkards.' 

"  Elkanah  Grafton  remained  a  fortnight  in 
the  village.  It  would  be  superfluous  to  say, 
that  he  visited  his  old  friend  Rawlins,  and 
took  tea  three  or  four  times  with  Ezekiel 


217  KITTY    GRAFTON.  127 

Atherton  and  his  wife.  Elkanah  gathered 
his  most  important  lessons  from  an  infallible 
teacher;  and  I  have  never  known  an  indi 
vidual  more  oblivious  of  injuries  or  more 
tenacious  of  the  recollection  of  benefits 
than  he. 

"  There  are  many  interesting  circumstances, 
connected  with  this  narrative,  which  I  cannot 
relate,  without  an  extension  of  the  story  to 
an  unwarrantable  length.  The  residue  may 
easily  be  told,  in  a  summary  manner.— Many 
years  have  passed  away,  since  those  days  of 
domestic  desolation,  when  poor  Elkanah  was 
a  broken-spirited  slave,  in  the  cottage  of  his 
drunken  father.  He  yet  lives,  opulent,  re 
spected,  and  beloved — the  benefactor  of  his 
fellow  men.  He  took  upon  himself  the 
education  of  his  three  brothers  and  his  sister. 
The  latter  is  now  the  wife  of  a  respectable 

professional  gentleman  in  . 

One  of  his  brothers  became  a  merchant,  and 
is  a  man  of  wealth.  The  other  two,  at  El- 
kanah's  charge,  received  a  liberal  education. 


128  KITTY    GRAFTON.  218 

Of  these  one  prepared  for  the  ministry,  but 
has  been  called,  I  trust,  to  a  better  world. 

"  In  the  Mahometan  empire,  refreshing 
fountains  are  often  presented  to  the  view  of 
the  traveller  by  the  side  of  the  public  way. 
Of  these  many  are  pious  foundations.  Trees 
are  planted  around  them.  Here  the  pious 
Mussulman  throws  off  his  mantle  ;  spreads 
it  for  a  carpet  on  the  ground  ;  and  with  his 
prayers,  unites  his  expressions  of  gratitude  to 
that  benefactor,  to  whom  he  is  indebted  for 
the  waters  of  the  fountain,  for  shade,  and  for 
repose. — In  a  distant  corner  of  our  country 
there  is  a  fountain  of  learning  and  piety, 
whose  streams  have  already  gone  forth  to 
refresh  and  irrigate  the  world.  For  centuries 
to  come,  the  Christian  disciple,  in  a  higher 
and  a  holier  spirit,  while  he  partakes  of  its 
living  waters,  shall  mingle  with  his  thanks 
giving  to  the  Most  High  God  his  grateful 
recollections  of  its  founder — that  wandering 
boy,  who,  having  no  earthly  father  to  comfort 
and  to  guide,  became  a  child  of  God — a 


219  KITTY    GRAFTON.  129 

steward  of  the   poor — a  benefactor  of  man 
kind. — Such  was  Elkanah  Grafton. 

"  Having  long  since  despaired  of  my  best 
efforts,  when  directly  employed  upon  that 
miserable  woman,  whom  we  saw  this  morn 
ing, — I  have  sometimes  induced  other 
persons  to  convey  to  her  the  tidings  of  God's 
kind  and  merciful  dealings  with  her  children. 
She  has  but  one  commentary  on  such  occa 
sions — <  They'll  all  be  drunkards.' — Every 
thing  is  done  to  render  her  situation  comfort 
able.  Efforts  were  made,  by  her  son's  direc 
tions,  to  repair  the  cottage,  and  put  the  estate 
in  better  order ;  but  she  expressed  so  much 
displeasure,  and  even  anger,  that  I  ordered 
the  workmen  to  desist.  She  told  them,  if 
they  repaired  it,  her  children,  when  they 
became  drunkards,  would  certainly  tear  it  to 
pieces.  She  is  desperate,  as  I  told  you  before. 
This  word  is  often  used  in  a  violent  sense  ; 
I  do  not  so  intend  it.  She  is  without  hope, 
and,  of  course,  without  happiness. — It  was  once 
far  otherwise — she  and  her  husband  were 
19 


1£G  KITTY   GRAFTON  220 

among  the  happiest  of  that  class  of  my  parish 
ioners,  whose  happiness  was  vested  in  mere 
earthly  joys  and  possessions  ;  and  I  truly  be 
lieve,  that,  such  as  it  was,  that  happiness  might 
have  continued,  unimpaired,  to  the  present 
hour — if  Ethan  Grafton's  cider  had  not 
been  equal  to  wine" 


